


Shadow Child

by jwriter819



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe-Mutant Children Outlawed, Gen, Homeless Peter Parker., Irondad, Kid Peter Parker, Mutant Control Agency, Peter is called Richie but only for a little while., abandoned peter parker, spiderson
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:08:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 31,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23781361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jwriter819/pseuds/jwriter819
Summary: In a world where mutant children are outlawed, ten-year-old Richard Parker Jr. has to figure out how to survive. With his whole life turned upside down, can Richie figure out a way to survive on his own or will he gain an ally that will change his life forever?This adventure story will take you on a journey to see how one boy changes the entire world in the midst of being illegal, adjusting to a new environment, and finally coming into his own.The question is...when mutant children are illegal how does one survive?
Relationships: Peter Parker & Avengers Team, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 28
Kudos: 113





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> [](https://postimg.cc/y384YfgN)  
> 

Richard Parker Jr. affectionately known as Richie found himself riding his bike briskly through the streets of the small town. Paper and trash flew up as he leaned into the curve. How was he going so fast? Why wasn’t his lungs hurting? 

What was going on with him? 

Tossing his bike down, Richie ran up the stairs and pushed the door to the library open. He didn’t bother to stop at the front desk like he normally did, instead, he ran toward the back where the computers were. Sitting down he immediately started to search about puberty. His ears glowed red as soon as the word appeared on the screen. Normally it would bother him, but today he didn’t care. Not when his whole life was at stake. Glancing over his shoulder he read more and more about what was supposed to happen to your body when you started to grow up. He was only ten, but his Uncle Ben had told him about the basics of what to expect. Like armpit hair and his voice changing and why he started to stink so much, but what he was seeing was like nothing he’d heard about.

Weird things were happening. 

His entire life he’d been blind as a bat, but now suddenly he could see.

He was also very flexible when before he would trip over a pebble on the ground.

The biggest change of all...he could breathe! 

For Richie’s entire life all he’d ever known was the struggle of asthma and the difficulty it brought to his breathing. Now though, he didn’t need to do his breathing treatments or take any of his inhalers anymore. For one month he hadn’t touched them and he could still breathe better than he ever had before. If he’d ever tried to go without even one treatment meant that he’d spend a whole day wheezing.

In short none of this was making sense and he needed to know once and for all what was going on?

For hours he scoured the internet looking up reasons why his body was changing like it was, but no one had any answers. He wasn’t crazy. His body had changed. It was obvious. Changing his search one more time he tried to find anything that could help him. 

An article popped up and Richie felt himself getting excited. ‘Has Your Child’s Body Changed Rapidly and In Unexplainable Ways?’ Richie immediately clicked on the article and devoured every word. He learned that some children lose ailments or conditions at the onset of puberty. That was a major sigh of relief. 

Great. 

He wasn’t crazy.

The article went on to discuss biology and how every child was different. Richie felt so calm after reading it that was until he reached the very end of the article. ‘Has your child experienced any of these symptoms? Then contact the MCA immediately. Your child probably has the Mutant X gene.” 

Richie sat back in shock. It felt like a bucket of cold water was thrown in his face. He was a mutant? How? 

He quickly closed the window, grabbed his bag, and sprinted out of the library. The word mutant rang loudly in his head. Mutants were bad. They were forbidden. He was a mutant! Grabbing his bike he quickly hopped on it and rode as quickly as he could toward home. His Aunt May and Uncle Ben would know how to help him.

He couldn’t be a mutant….he just couldn’t! 

~/~

Richie had his face buried into his pillow crying to stop himself from sobbing uncontrollably. He was a mutant! He kept trying to reason himself out of the conclusion, but it made sense. All he wanted was to be normal. Before it was because he could barely do anything that wasn’t reading without wheezing and now he was doing things that he was never able to do before. Was this his punishment for something?

Why’d he have to be a mutant? Mutants were evil and dangerous. Did that mean Richie was going to become evil? Aunt May had always said he had a beautiful heart. Would his heart change because he was a mutant? Was that how it worked? The questions kept slamming through his mind and he couldn't make this stop. 

A hiccup came forth as he curled tighter into a ball. He couldn’t be a mutant...he just couldn’t!

Richie heard the signs of his aunt and uncle returning from work and he realized that it must be later than he thought. They always did the same things every day with Uncle Ben finishing first then driving over to pick up Aunt May. Most days it was comforting, but today it felt like a curse.

They both would know! 

“Richie?” He heard the creaking of the stairs. Here it comes. “Richie, are you up there bud?” He knew that his Uncle was at his bedroom door. He heard the heavy boots approaching before the burly man sat down on his bed. A hand landed on his back. “What’s wrong baby?” Richie sucked in his breath and tried to wipe his eyes.

He just couldn’t get the words out.

~/~

The sun was going down by the time that Richie heard another set of footsteps coming up the steps toward his room. He was now sitting up with his knees pulled to his chest hiding under the blankets. Maybe if he didn’t come out then things would be ok, right?

Maybe he wasn’t a mutant with powers. 

Maybe this was all just a big misunderstanding.

“Ben,” he heard his aunt call up the stairs. “You need to see this.” Richie heard them rustling around before two sets of footsteps frantically climbed up the stairs. 

It was his aunt’s soft but shaky voice that spoke, “Richie, you haven’t been taking your inhalers?” 

“Come out bud, we need to talk,” his uncle Ben said. Richie still couldn’t face them, but he didn’t get a choice. His uncle gently pulled the blanket off his head and Richie looked up at him with watery eyes.

“I’m sorry! I don’t know what’s happening!” His uncle gave him a soft smile and sat on Richie’s bed. 

“Oh, Richie, it’s ok. Come on, just tell us what’s happening,” the man said pulling the boy close to him. Sucking in a deep breath he laid everything out for them. How one night he woke up in an insane amount of pain before falling back to sleep and realizing that he didn’t need his glasses anymore when he woke up. He told them that for the last month things kept changing and he never knew what to expect. With each new detail, he saw the horror and sympathy grow in their eyes. By the end, he felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulders.

He’d finally told the truth. 

He wasn’t alone anymore. 

When he was done, he was leaning against Ben’s massive chest feeling better than he had in a long time. He was sandwiched between his aunt and uncle and he loved it. 

“Richie,” his uncle started but stopped abruptly when a violent knock came to the door. May moved from the bed and went to look out the window to see who it was. 

“Ben,” she gasped.

“What?”

“It’s MCA open up for questioning!” Richie panicked and gulped. How did they find him already? 

“Hey baby calm down. They’re probably doing a routine sweep, ok? Take a deep breath,” his Uncle said standing up. His uncle moved across and went down the steps with his aunt pulling Richie to her side. They both waited with bated breath, he hoped everything would be ok. He didn’t want to be a mutant. Not one bit. “Why don’t you lie down?” Richie turned to look up at her. She was giving him a soft smile behind her big round glasses. 

“Aunt May?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry,” he said sadly. She leaned down and kissed his forehead. 

“You, my precious little bean have nothing to be sorry about. Now hush,” she said. Richie watched her close the door to his room, but he heard her wait to descend the stairs. 

As he closed his eyes, Richie wondered how long it would take for his heart to become evil. 

~/~

Two days had passed since the Parkers had been visited by the MCA and two days since Richie had announced that he was a mutant. Things had been tense at best. They all knew it was dangerous to harbor a mutant child and while Richie knew that they wouldn’t turn him in, he wondered if it would just be better to leave. The thought itself scared him, but the idea of his aunt and uncle getting into trouble for his sake absolutely terrified him. 

He just couldn’t let that happen. 

“Richie my big man, it’s time to wake up,” Ben said walking into Richie’s room. Sitting up the boy smiled before rubbing his eyes. Ever since the MAC’s had left, Richie knew that his aunt and uncle had been working on figuring out what was going on with him. He was hoping against all hope that he was going to be ok. 

Unfortunately, as soon as Richie saw the waffles with strawberries and blueberries smothered in whipped cream that he knew. His aunt and uncle didn’t have a lot of money. Anytime they got something like whipped cream it was a big deal. This was bad. He offered his uncle a smile. Ben moved slowly in his pajama bottoms before settling himself on Richie’s bed. He couldn’t hold it in anymore. He just had to know. “I’m one of them, huh?” Ben gave him a sad smile.

“Yeah, buddy. Looks like it.” Richie sucked in a sad breath trying to hold back the tears.  
“I didn’t want to be.” 

“I know baby.” Ben took a deep breath before brushing the curls out of Richie’s face with his giant hand. 

“Why Ben, why me?” Moving the small platter of food, Ben pulled Richie into his arms. Burying his face into Ben’s massive chest the little boy let his tears come. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen! I just want to be normal.”

“I know buddy. I know.”

“And now you and May are in danger ‘cause of me and it’s my fault,” the boy cried. 

For a long time, they stayed like that. All that could be heard were the cries of the new mutant and the somber puffs of air from the boy’s uncle. “So what’s going to happen now?” 

“Let’s just enjoy this tasty breakfast,” Ben said, not really answering the question. Richie knew that was bad. His uncle was always direct and straight with him and if he wanted to avoid the conversation then things were worse than Richie knew. 

The emotions of the last month were too much for him to wait any longer. “Ben? Please, I need to know.” His uncle sucked in a breath and set down the plate again. 

“It’s not safe for you here, anymore.” That was exactly what he knew was going to happen.

“I don’t want to leave! I love you guys!”

“We love you too Richie. You know that.” The man sighed. “But they’re on your trail now. If you stay,” he broke off. Richie knew exactly what would happen if he stayed. He’d end up in a lab and his aunt and uncle would be killed for treason. 

With the strongest voice he could muster he asked, “Where am I gonna go?”

“We can’t afford to send you anywhere real good, we’re sending you to a family friend. Well, she’s your aunt’s cousin, Julia. She and her husband have a home there for boys. You'll be able to blend in there.” 

“You’ll get to live in the big city, Richie,” his aunt said, offering him a smile. 

“What big city,” he asked, feeling somehow more scared than before. The Parkers lived in a very small country town. There were probably less than three thousand people in the whole area. He’d never been to a city bigger than the one with the mall in it and that felt huge to him. 

“You’re moving to New York baby,” she said. Richie felt like his world was literally falling off of his axis.

New York?

“When can I come back,” he asked looking between the both of them. In his gut, he knew what they were going to say, but he really hoped he was wrong. As soon as he knew by the looks on their faces that he couldn’t. 

“Now, no more sad talk, ok? Today you and I are going to do everything you want,” Ben said. Although that should have been music to his ears Richie didn’t miss the lingering insinuation. 

“I’m leaving tomorrow,” he sputtered out. 

“Yeah, bud.” Richie’s face slumped and his stomach started to curl into itself. As much as he didn’t want to he started to cry. 

“Why? I’ll be good, I promise! I’ll take pills. Really I will! I’ll do anything to stay here!” 

Richie watched his aunt start to cry. “It’s not about that, bud. You know we’d do everything we could to keep you safe. It’s just we don’t have a lot of money. If we don’t do this now, we won’t be able to protect you.” Ben pulled him onto his lap and wrapped his arms around his nephew. Leaning into his uncle’s chest Richie didn’t try to stop his tears. 

Being a mutant had ruined his life. 

~/~

It was pitch black outside as the cab pulled up to the end of their driveway. Richie has all of his worldly possessions on his back and in the small duffel bag his aunt had picked up from a second-hand store. 

Everything felt wrong at that moment. 

He wasn’t supposed to be standing here being sent away like a criminal. He wasn’t supposed to be making his aunt cry. He definitely wasn’t supposed to be leaving the only home that he’d ever known. 

This just wasn’t fair. 

A hand on his shoulder jolted him back to recognition. Ben was leaning down offering him a sad smile. “You ready big boy?” Richie bit his lip and sighed. Of course, he wasn’t ready, but what could he say? “Don’t cry, ok? You gotta be strong for just a bit longer. When you get on the bus you can cry as much as you want, but the cab driver can see you cry.” Richie nodded. 

“Yes, sir,” he squeaked. 

“You’re going to be a great person, Richard. You have a wonderful heart and I know that we’re going to read about how you changed the world. When you do that, come and see us again.” Richie nodded. Ben leaned down and gave Richie a kiss before stepping to the side.

“Oh, my baby. I am going to miss you,” May said leaning down and pulling him into a hug. “Things just won’t be the same without you.” She gave him another hug. “Oh Richie, you have my heart and you always will.” Ben broke up the hug with a gentle reminder that the meter was running. 

“It’s time,” the man said. Richie bit his lip and nodded. He threw his bags into the car and looked at them. May offered him one more kiss. 

“Be good, baby!” 

“I love you guys!” Ben pulled him close for one more hug and May gave him another kiss. Just as Richie felt his lip start to the tremble, the door closed. 

“Put your seatbelt on baby,” May said loud enough for him to hear through the closed door. Silently he did so. The car pulled away from the curb and Richie turned around to see his aunt and uncle on the curb. Everything in him wanted to jump out of that cab and run toward them, but he knew he couldn't’. 

“Those your parents?” Turning around for a second, Richie glanced at the driver before looking back at the small versions of May and Ben. With his new eyesight, he could see May’s face buried in Ben’s chest. Then the car turned the corner. 

“My um Aunt and Uncle,” he said, turning around again hoping they would magically appear. 

“You just visiting?”

“I’m going to live with my parents now,” he said over the lump in his throat. That was the story they’d come up with.

“Well you might want to sit down, we’re about to hit some checkpoints and we’ve got quite a drive.” Richie nodded and stared at his hands. 

The same hands that had announced his mutation.


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's see how Richie's life looks after leaving the only home he's ever known.

**Four Months Later**

Gusts of wind whipped through the city streets as Richie trudged forward. At the moment there were only two things on his mind; he was exhausted and he was hungry. He pulled the second-hand sweatshirt up tighter against his neck and pressed forward. 

It had been two weeks since he left his Julia and Frank’s and life on the streets was an even harsher hell than what he’d experienced living there. The food he’d managed to save was gone by the fifth day and from there, things just seemed to snowball downhill. 

Everyday things just seemed to be getting worse. If he wasn’t having to constantly find new places to hide then he was having to find new ways to get food. It was like nothing he could do satisfied his hunger. The day before he was able to get two sandwiches and an apple for lunch from a shelter, but an hour later it was like he hadn’t eaten at all.

He was starving and getting desperate. Just last night he’d tried to steal a man’s wallet, but that was a complete disaster. The guy had grabbed him and Richie ended up struggling to break free of his grip. Within seconds people were screaming and cops were chasing him. Like a complete dummy, he’d freaked out and climbed up a wall to getaway. It was good that he moved so fast, but it was horrible because now he couldn’t go back and get any of his stuff. He ran and ran until finally he collapsed in the back of some crappy storage area in a lumber yard. For hours he stood there trying to make sure that he didn’t make any noise that could end up giving up his location.

That was how Richie found himself feeling hungrier and weaker than he had in his entire life. With another step, his stomach rumbled. 

He needed food! 

Looking around he tried to see if any of the stores had dumped any food yet. Moving into the alley he found himself opening the dumpsters. When he left his aunt and uncle’s he never thought that he could end up scrounging through dumpsters for food. They may not have had a lot at his aunt and uncle’s but he’d never once gone hungry.  
Stupid mutation. 

Feeling like he’d hit the lottery Richie found several containers of mostly untouched food. He dove in with a smile. He grabbed biscuits, mashed potatoes, and what looked like chicken out of one box. He jumped up and down at how good it tasted. Tears popped into his eyes as the gnawing pain in his belly started to subside. He quickly threw that tray aside and dug into another one that was full of steak and carrots. Near the back of the alley, Richie thought he heard something but when he turned his head nothing was there. Leaning on the balls of his feet he wished he had something to drink, but he figured he’d be able to find a bathroom somewhere and drink from the sink. 

Then just as he was polishing off the third tray, voices appeared behind him. Scrambling behind the dumpster, Richie tried to hide. He wiped the back of his mouth with his hand. His heart was beating through his chest and into his ears. “I can’t believe we have to close at like seven. It’s rush hour!”

“I know, stupid MAC’s.” Richie’s blood ran cold. 

“They’re always infringing on our rights. I’d fight back if they weren’t so powerful,” a guy in an apron said. Peeking behind the dumpster, Richie could see people running down the street and getting into cars. 

Oh no!

They were doing city sweeps. 

This was bad...very, VERY bad. 

Suddenly everything that Richie had just eaten felt like it was going to be seen again. Millions of terrifying ideas flashed across his mind. 

What was he going to do? 

He didn’t have enough time to get somewhere safe. Hell, he didn’t even have anywhere safe to go. Looking around Richie tried to keep it together, he moved to run but his feet didn’t move anywhere. His brain knew that if he went back on the street he would be found out by the MAC’s in seconds. He considered throwing himself in the dumpster, but he remembered seeing on the news one time of MACs looking in dumpsters and even under cars for young mutants. This was it, he was going to be captured. Tears leaked from his eyes. He was just a disappointment...a big one. All he had to do was keep himself safe, but he couldn’t even do that. Bitter tears fell rapidly down his cheeks. 

He was so scared and all alone..

All he wanted to do was go home.

Suddenly he felt something move behind him. A hand clamped over Richie’s mouth causing a scream to burst out of his throat as he thrashed to get free. The person was much bigger than him and tightened its grip on his mouth before hissing into his ear. “Stop making a scene, you want them to come over here?” Richie immediately stopped struggling but his heart was still beating rapidly. “They’re doing mutant sweeps and we need to get you out of here. Follow my lead.” Before Richie moved the man rubbed a weird oil all over Richie’s face then pulled the hood onto Richie’s head covering most of his face. “Don’t touch your face and give me your hand.” Slowly Richie let the man take his hand and lead them back toward the street. 

It was almost like the man was pulling him as he power walked up the sidewalk. Richie glanced at the man. His hair was blonde and he was muttering to himself rapidly under his breath. Even as scared as he was it was odd to have someone hold his hand. He was ten, not five. Besides, the last people to hold his hand had been Ben and May. Even if he wanted it to be them, dreaming didn’t matter now. The mysterious man continued to hold his hand as they moved quickly down the street. This was much scarier than Richie had ever imagined. Here he was in the middle of New York being led by the hand by some man who he didn’t even know hoping somehow that he wasn’t taking him to his death. 

Richie was terrified. 

He didn’t know who the man was and if he should trust him, but he knew if he got caught by those guards that he would be experimented on or worse. He didn’t want that. 

Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

A pair of guards appeared on the street making Richie completely lose his nerve and tried to pull away from the only to have the man snatch his hand back. Quickly he felt the man push his hood bag and tugged on Richie’s ear hard. “You make me come out in the middle of the night and search for you then you want to run away from me? You’re gonna get it when we get home,” the man told Richie. The words only made him cry more. 

Who was this man? 

Richie’s heart started hammering in his chest and he felt like he wanted to jump out of his skin. As the guards approached, Richie was doing the exact opposite of playing it cool by now tears were leaking down his cheeks openly. “Excuse me, sir, the city is on lockdown,” one of the MAC’s said. The strange man made a big show of things flailing his arms in the air and huffing about.

“You think I don’t know that? Normally I’d be locked up in my safe home away from all those crazy people, but my wayward child here decided it was a good night to throw a tantrum and try to run away. Now if you’ll excuse me we’ll just be going home.” Richie was still crying and the agent’s scrutinizing look on him wasn’t helping. 

“No, I need to see an ID for you and the boy,” the taller MAC said. Richie looked at the crisp gray and green uniforms that were standard for any Mutant Asset Control guard. 

All the while the strange man was voicing his aggravation “This is absurd. It’s only ten minutes after the curfew. I have rights you know. You can’t just search me whenever you want.”

The other seemingly nicer MAC stepped forward. “We have reason to believe that there is a young mutant in the area. Apparently it can climb walls. That’s something we need to look into. Now ID’s sir.” Richie felt his heart rate picking up. A mutant that climbed walls? 

They were looking for him! 

Finally, the mysterious man huffed and let go of Richie’s hand. He turned toward him and put his hand tightly on Richie’s neck. “If you run away kid, I’ll smack you where you stand. I don’t care who’s watching or what your mother says, got me?” Richie bit his lip before nodding. Either this man was a great actor or he was crazy. Either way, he was too afraid to figure it out. Digging through his wallet the mysterious man pulled out his ID while muttering about how this was a violation of his rights and...an ID for Richie. 

“So you’re Greg Owens and this is your son Evan?” The man huffed.

“Yes, can we go now? I want to get him home.” The officer threw a side-eye at the man before looking at Richie again.

“Why’s he crying?” Richie opened his mouth to apologize, but the man tugged hard on his hand again. 

“What part of he threw a tantrum didn’t you understand? He’s in trouble. What kid doesn’t cry when they’re in trouble?” 

The guard leaned forward as if he was looking closely at Richie. “What street do you live on kid?” 

“Is this necessary,” the mysterious man huffed again. The guard rolled his eyes. Richie felt frantic he had no idea what he was supposed to say. “I told you he’s scared of what’s gonna happen when I get him home,” the man said. “And he should be. So can we go now?” 

“Let the kid tell me. Where do you live?” The guard moved Richie away from the mysterious man a bit and Richie couldn’t help but let out a startled squeak. Richie didn’t quite understand what was going on, but he was so scared. He just knew that he was going to be taken away. Then faintly quieter than anyone ever spoke before he heard the man say ‘off Exeter St’..

“Tell him so we can go,” the mysterious man said.

“O-on Exeter,” Richie said quietly. The guard huffed before his partner shook his head.

“Let ‘em go, man, this kid’s too puny to be one of them anyway.” The other guard rolled his eyes. 

“Fine you can go, but don’t be on the streets during a sweep again. This was a complete waste of our time.” Just like that, the guards were moving down the street. 

“Sure thing Captain Obvious,” the mysterious man said under his breath. Reaching down he tugged Richie’s hand into his own again. They walked at a brisk pace for several blocks before the man moved toward a plain looking car. “Get in.” Richie bit his lip he wasn’t sure that he should. “Look if I was going to hurt you would I have put my own neck on the line for you back there? You don’t have to come, but I guarantee you they won’t be so nice next time.” Richie glanced around and climbed in. 

He just hoped he wasn’t making the biggest mistake of his life. 

~/~

An hour later they were safely inside a home that was bigger than anything Richie had ever seen in his life. The entire ride neither of them had spoken, instead, they had simply driven all over the city before landing somewhere that wasn’t very far away from where they had started. Richie’s eyes were big as saucers when he entered the mostly dark brick home. 

“Keep up kid,” the man said as he moved quickly through the maze of walls and stairs. When they finally arrived in a large penthouse looking apartment Richie felt himself relaxing a bit. To his horror and great surprise, the man started to pull off his skin. He was mortified and started to back away. “Calm down, I’m a human, see?” The man was looking Richie in the eyes with a bit of a smirk. “I’m not crazy, just cautious.” 

Richie still felt more afraid than he had in his entire life. “W-What was that?”

“My disguise,” the man said, wiping his face with a towel. “It’s hot and terribly uncomfortable.” Richie bit his lip and eased a bit forward. “I’m definitely going to need a good facial after this,” he huffed out playfully. 

“Why’d you need a disguise?”

The man moved the sink and started splashing water on his face. “Think I want them to come looking for me or you? Nope.” Somehow the man was now in a loose-fitting t-shirt and now longer had blonde hair. Richie figured he’d just stop asking questions. He just seemed to get more confused by the minute. The man threw a towel at Richie’s head. “Wipe your face off.”

Eagerly Richie did so his own face was starting to feel rather itchy. To his surprise, it felt like his skin was cleaner than it had been in a long time. “What was that stuff?”

“It’s a serum I designed. It’s meant to distort your facial features for an hour or so. It was the easiest disguise I could find for you in the limited time we had. That brings me to my next question, what were you thinking?” Richie didn’t respond. “Seriously? You tried to steal my wallet which wasn’t a very good try might I ask, then you climb up a wall? What did you need so bad that you almost cost yourself your life?” He was the guy Richie tried to rob? This was terribly embarrassing. “Well?” 

“I was hungry,” he mumbled.

“Hungry? Geez kid, don’t you have a home or something?” Richie shrugged, feeling embarrassment covering him like a thick blanket. “Ok, so you’re a young mutant there’s probably not many safe places for you to find food, right?” Richie nodded. “You look normal enough, why don’t you try to like pass?” 

Richie bit his lip. “What do you mean?”

“You know, just try to be a normal kid. Go to school, live with your family. Stuff like that,” the man said.

“My um great aunt I lived with her at this home for boys but it didn’t work out,” Richie said then winced. Why was he telling this man his business?

“She mean to you?” Richie gave him a blank stare trying to hide some part of the truth. “Ok, so what was so bad that you left a warm home and a place that kept you off the radar?” Richie bit his lip and stared at his feet. He wasn’t planning to share anything with his man. All he knew about him so far was that he’d kept him safe but he didn’t know what the man was planning to do with him. Richie maybe ten, but he wasn’t dumb. He felt a calloused hand grip his chin making him lookup. “I put my neck on the line for you. The least you can do is tell me the truth.” When Richie didn’t speak the man let go of his chin and crossed his arms. “You don’t have to share anything with me, I get that. You can rest here tonight, then tomorrow I can have someone drop you off where you want to go. I’ve got cameras everywhere so don't try to steal anything.” As the man turned to leave, Richie felt a weird pull to spill his guts. This guy was the first person to be nice to him since that day he had to leave his aunt and uncle. 

Just maybe he could help him.

Just maybe. 

“Her husband,” Richie said quietly. The man turned around. “My aunt’s husband, he didn’t like me much.” He blew out a breath. “I think he suspected too.” 

“Ok, well that’s enough for me.” Richie nodded. The man moved closer and this time Richie didn’t backpedal. “So what was your endgame?” Richie gave him a blank stare. “Right, you’re what eight?” The man sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “What was your plan?”

“I was hoping to go to that school. For um, you know.” 

“And how did you plan to get there? It’s probably just a myth you know.” Richie bit his lip. It couldn’t be a myth. It had to be real. 

“I figure since everyone talks about it so much that it has to be a real place. There’s got to be a safe place for kids like me.” Finally, that seemed to relax the man. 

“That’s all you want?” Richie eagerly nodded.

“I don’t know if it’s real or not, but I've got to try. It’s safe and warm and I wouldn’t have to hide anymore.” 

The man nodded his head and finally uncrossed his arms. “I can get you there.”

“Really?” That had been Richie’s dream ever since he learned the truth about himself. A refuge for mutants. A place with food, a warm bed, and no more fear of being caught. 

Paradise. 

“Well, I guess you got lucky. Come on, let’s get some food and I’ll make some phone calls.”

“Hey um, mister? What do I call you?” The man thought for a moment. 

“For the sake of your safety and mine, I think it’s best that we don’t use real names.” A part of Richie felt disappointed by that, but he did understand. That didn’t stop the pain that tinged his gut though.

He longed to be normal again. 

~/~

Apparently Richie’s time at Julia and Frank’s plus his weeks on the streets had left him malnourished or at least that's what the doctor had said to him. That first day with the mysterious man saw Richie get a physical along with a battery of other tests all before noon. He hadn’t been poked and prodded like that ever in his life. All the doctors spoke far away from Richie and when he did hear what they were saying it was always some type of joke before they left. He didn’t mind so much, because one of the doctors had said he had to eat tasty foods so he could feel better. That was actually one of the best things he’d heard in a long time. From then on he ate three smoothies every day full of various ingredients and he got to pick out tasty meals to have delivered.

The Boss as the mystery man was known to his staff as was as helpful to Richie as anyone he’d ever met. Somehow he figured out that Richie needed to be warmer so he got him a heated blanket to sleep with.

It was amazing! 

He drank smoothies, ate pizza, and filled himself up on as much food as possible. The best part about it all though wasn’t the food or the comfy house, it was the man himself. He watched movies with Richie, they played games, but most importantly they worked in his little home office. It was so much fun to tinker and try to make something out of nothing. It was like the enchanted forest for nerds. Everything that Richie wanted or needed was right in his reach. Plus the Boss had got him new clothes, shoes, and even some toys to play with. At first, he had acted like he didn’t play with toys, but they were so cool he couldn’t help himself. Several nights when the Boss left to do whatever it was that he did, Richie found himself on the floor playing with his Avengers action figures or building with the Legos he’d gotten.

It was the first time in forever that he felt safe and happy. After one night of play wrestling and gorging on ice cream Richie had laid down on the big couch that was like a giant pillow and for the first time, he found himself dreaming of staying right there with the Boss. 

The fun they could have. The things they could build. How perfect their life could be. After that it seemed like every night he would go back to that same fantasy.

Him and the Boss.

Secretly he had wondered what he could call the man. Would he say Boss or would he call him something cool, like the Don or Rambo? Richie let himself dream of just calling the man Dad. He sure would be a great one. As he fell asleep yet again all he could think about was how perfect his life was at that moment.

~/~

The very next morning Richie awoke to the sound of the Boss practically tearing someone’s ear off over the phone. Not wanting to disturb him he just lay there until it seemed safe to move. 

As soon as he sat up all of the fantasies he had in his mind were gone.

There in the corner of the kitchen were the bags from Richie’s hideout along with a new one.

The bomb dropped over breakfast. Peter had hopped on the scale and let the Boss’ computer do the numbers. The man had frowned before plastering a smile on his face. The Boss told him that he was now healthy enough to travel to the school for mutants and he would be leaving the next morning. Richie wanted to ask why so soon, but the words were stuck in this throat.

He felt like he’d been punched in the gut. That day breakfast tasted like ash and the rest of the day was a wash. All he managed to do was pack his meager belongings and try not to cry.

That night instead of dreaming, Richie found himself praying. More than anything he wanted to stay here with the Boss. He tossed and turned as he mulled over a thousand scenarios of how to ask for what he really wanted. But then he started to wonder, would the Boss want him to stay? Sure they’d had fun, some of the best fun Richie ever had, but was that enough? Finally just as the sun pierced the sky, Richie fell into a fitful sleep.

He wished that he had time to dream, but he didn’t. It felt like only minutes later that the Boss was shaking him awake and urging him to take a shower and get ready to leave. He didn’t even get the chance to fully figure everything out before they were descending the steps toward the garage. Richie felt like he was underwater the entire time. Nothing about this felt right, but then again what in his life did? 

“You got everything?” Richie looked down at the small bag on his back. There wasn’t much in it. Most of what he had was what the Boss had bought for him and his few trinkets from his previous life. 

“Yeah.”

“Well, you better get going. Remember, you were never here and you don’t know me, right?” A knife twisted deep in Richie’s little chest, but he somehow managed to nod. “You’re a good kid and I know you’ll do great things.” Unable to stop himself, Richie reached out and hugged the Boss. 

“You’ve been nicer to me than anyone else has in forever,” Richie said, face buried deep in the man’s torso. 

“Hey, I’m gonna miss you, but this is for the best. This is your paradise, remember?” Richie nodded and wiped his eyes. He put his bag on the floor in the backseat and hesitated for a moment. Two weeks ago this was his dream, but he didn’t want to go now. He knew in his gut that the Boss wouldn’t really want a mutant kid around, but maybe he could see him sometimes still.

“Can I come visit you?” The Boss shook his head. Immediately Richie felt like he’d been spit on. 

Right. 

Mutant kids were dangerous. 

“Come on, don’t look at me like that. You won’t need to visit this old man with all the friends you’ll make. You’ll forget all about me.” Richie gave him the best smile he could manage. 

“Thank you again,” he said before climbing into the car. The car pulled away from the curb with a jolt. Turning around in his seat, Richie waved at the Boss and the man waved back. Through that window, he watched the man until he couldn’t see him anymore. 

Why does he always have to leave the people that he loves?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...how'd you feel about the Boss? ;)
> 
> Lemme know what you guys think! I'll see you soo and stay safe!


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to EVERYONE who has commented on this story so far! I'm really loving writing it and I know you're going to enjoy reading it. We're still in the tick tick tick stage up the rollercoaster, but let me tell you THIS puppy is going to get BUMPY! I'm so excited to share it with you all.
> 
> Anyway! Enjoy!

The first few days at the school of Gifted Youngsters weren’t too bad. They were still trying to figure out which kids should go where so Richie ended up in a room by himself for about a week. It was bitterly lonely and Richie did the best he could to not cry himself to sleep every night. In the last year, this was the fifth place he’d had a ‘room’ at and he was sick to death of moving. More than anything he wanted someplace to call home. 

The days weren’t too bad and he excelled in his classes and the Professor and the rest of his teachers seemed to like him well enough. Overall he knew it wouldn’t love it there, but it seemed like a nice place. Everything changed when he walked back into his room after lunch to mess around with his Legos and discovered two other boys...much bigger boys were unpacking. 

That was the day he met Norman and Cole. The twins from hell. Cole had a strange mutation that allowed him to create a lasso out of kinetic energy. Norman could harness energy to create fires. Needless to say, it was terrifying for Richie. From the moment they laid eyes on him, things were a nightmare. It didn’t matter if they were in the classroom, the hallways, the lunchroom, or even in the room at night they always found a way to make Riche’s life miserable.

They stole his toothbrush, cut the legs off of his bed, hid his toys, melted his Legos, and a million other things that made Richie want to get as far away from him as possible. Late last week somehow they had convinced a few of the older kids to join in on their fun and now Richie found himself constantly looking over his shoulder wondering who is going to push him down or try to take something else from him.

The only thing that was keeping him sane was the random gifts that the Boss was sending him. As soon as he got it, Richie would rush to hide it so that no one would find out about it. One time it was a tablet, another time it was a cell phone, and this last time it was a set of books of mechanics. There was never a return address or anything that could ever link the man’s real identity to the gifts, but they always brought a smile to Richie’s face.

And boy did he need to smile.

Richie was happily enjoying the newest set of Avengers action figures on the grass in the courtyard. It was hidden off to the side of the building. Almost no one ever went over there. He was having about as much fun as he had in days until he heard the words that made his blood run cold. 

“There he is!” Turning around Richie saw five much larger boys running his way. Quickly he tried to scramble and grab up his action figures before shoving them in his backpack. He jumped up and took off with his bag on his back. He knew he couldn’t go back to the room because they’d just find him there. If he went to a teacher he was sure to have to deal with it later at bedtime. He was so scared that he might actually get beat up or worse. 

Frantically Richie ran across the lawn as fast as he could before he felt his legs knocked out from under him. Unable to brace himself he planted his face hard in the dirt. Immediately he knew that his lip was bruised if not bleeding. He heard them cackling in the background. Feeling warm tears Richie dusted the dirt off his face and started to run again. 

He couldn’t let them catch him, he just couldn’t. 

Looking around he took solace in the only place he could find...a tree. He ran at full speed and climbed like his life was depending on it. He moved up into the tree as far as he could before the branches got thinner. It only took them less than a minute or so to reach the hoard of trees. He held his breath when the kids stood under the trees looking around.

“Where’d he go?” Richie saw Kelvin using his heightened sense of sight trying to find him. He was trying to stay as still as possible. 

“He’s so small he could be anywhere,” Norman said. 

“I don’t know why he’s here anyway. He’s not a real mutant,” Cole said. 

“What?”

“I heard the Professor talking to Ambassador Michael. Bug Boy’s just some science experiment.” Richie gasped but still himself when Kelvin started to look around again. 

“What?” 

“Yeah Cole, his dad's some freak who messed with his DNA at birth. Anyway, let’s go break the news to the freak,” Kelvin said menacingly. As the kids scattered Richie stuck himself to the tree good. 

If he had a choice he would never come down. 

~/~

With music blasting through the shop, Tony Stark, known to many as the Boss, was sitting at his workbench trying to hammer through a bunch of different prototypes when his phone rang. 

“Accept,” he called out, not looking up from the device in his hands. 

“Old friend how are you?” Immediately Tony stopped what he was doing. His heart started to beat more rapidly than it had in a long time. Plopping down on the stool started to wipe his hands with an errant towel. If Charles was calling then something was wrong with the boy there. He was sure of it.

“I’m ok, what’s the purpose of your call? Is this about the kid?”

“Why yes it is actually.”

“What’s wrong?”

Tony drew his lips into a fine line. “He’s not going so well, I’m afraid,” the older man said. 

“What? Why?”

“It appears that the other children aren’t taking well to him.” 

Tony furrowed his brows. “What does that mean?” 

“He’s easy prey. The other children have developed an affinity to attack him.”

“What do you mean, attack? Isn’t it a school. Why don’t you stop them?”

Even though he couldn’t see it, he knew that Charles was rolling his eyes at him. “Old Friend.” Tony sighed, he hated it when Charles said the term like that. It made him feel stupid and Tony Stark was not in fact stupid. “Children are very intuned with what’s going on around them. Especially my students. They have a certain ability to sniff out those who do not belong.” Tony felt himself getting hot under the collar. That kid was amazing and anybody who couldn’t see that was dumber than an amoeba. 

“So what are you saying? He doesn’t fit in.”

“I’m saying that I believe it would be in his best interest for you to find alternative arrangements for him. He’s not fitting in here.” Tony practically growled.

“Me? What am I supposed to do? In case you haven’t realized it, you’re the guru. Not me. I do cars and mechanics, not kids.”

“If you ask me, I think you are more suited for children than you think.”

“Well it’s a good thing that I didn’t ask you, isn’t it?” Tony heard Charles chuckle. “I mean he’s a good kid, why don’t they like him?”

“As you know all of our students are attuned to certain things specifically. Quite frankly, I think his struggle is partly related to his own feelings of longing.”

“What?”

“The boy wants to be with you. It’s permeating from his very being. It’s clear that he does not wish to be here.” Tony stopped the motion of his chair and placed his feet firmly on the ground.

“Huh?” 

“Have you been unaware of this? You correspond with him frequently, do you not?” Tony leaned back pondering on that. He did send the boy gifts, but he never left anything specific on the notes or a return address; it was much safer that way. “Oh, that’s right you didn’t want any actual ties to him aside from sending the occasional gift.” Tony gritted his teeth. “I seem to remember someone else suffering that same fate when he was a boy here.” 

“That was different. This kid likes the stuff I’ve sent him I’m sure. My old man didn’t care one hill of beans about me. The only time I knew that he even thought of me were those gifts."

“But he never once came to see you or even told you how to reach him, am I correct?”

“It’s safer this way and you know it.”

“I’ve seen the boy’s affection for your first hand,” the man continued. “He longs for you as a protector and right now he is in dire need of protection.”  
“Come on, we all get bullied it can’t be that bad.”

“He slept in the big tree last night.” 

That floored Tony. “What? Why?”

“He won’t tell me openly, but he’s expressed that he was afraid to sleep in his room for fear of being harmed. I’ve done what I can, but the boy is a target. Just short of giving him a bodyguard or watching him every second of the day there’s nothing else I can do.” That was a hard pill to swallow. He’d sent the boy out with dreams of him doing great things and being safe. He didn’t want him to have to worry about being tied to a double life. Now though, it seemed though that destiny had other plans. 

After several long moments of tense silence, Tony spoke. “I can’t do what you’re proposing you know.”

“Oh really? Now, why would you think that?” 

The scoff from Tony was heard loud and clear. “You know what kind of life I lead. That’s not fit for a child,” Tony said frustratedly. 

“You lived it.”

“Yeah and look how I turned out. It’s not fair to do that to another child.”

“You can be better. You are not your father,” Charles said pointedly. Looking around the room, Tony couldn’t help but to weigh his options. The kid was like him and he did enjoy having him around, but he worked a lot. Between press events, running a company, and working on countless “secure” things he didn’t know if he’d have time for a child. “You’ll make the time,” Charles cut in. Tony rolled his eyes.

“I hate it when you do that, you know. It’s an invasion of privacy.” Charles chuckled.

“Well don’t think so loudly and I won’t.” Tony leaned his head back and groaned. 

“I can’t do this.” The man paused before starting again.

“Do you mean can’t or won’t? Should this boy suffer because you’re afraid? Just be the parent that you wanted as a child.”

“If it would be so easy.”

“I’ll inform the boy that he will be leaving tomorrow.”  
“No! I didn’t agree to that yet,” Tony squawked. 

“I believe you have,” the old man chuckled before disconnecting the call. 

“Stupid telepath.” 

~/~

Richie didn’t know how much later it was, but when he woke up the sun was in his eyes. He shot up in the bed wondering why no one had woken him up. As he looked around the room he realized he was no longer in the tree, but rather in a bed. 

“Relax young Richard,” Professor X said gliding into the room. Richie’s heart started to beat rapidly in his chest. Where was he? “You’re in my personal quarters.” The Professor offered a chuckle as he approached Richie. “You have your mutation as I do.”

“Ok,” Richie said softly.

“I’m sure that you are wondering why you’re here. Well, Richie when we did room checks last night you weren’t in your room. That’s against the rules as I’m sure that you know. Typically we would have to put you on restriction or require you to do some type of work to regain your privileges, but I don’t think that will work here.” 

“You’re gonna make me leave? I like it here,” Richie said, sounding as desperate as he felt. He was lying; he hated it there. Tears were running down his cheeks as much as he hated it. He really didn’t have anywhere else to go. 

“Oh, quite the contrary.” 

Richie sniffed, “What do you mean?”

“You see, this school is for the kids who have no other options. They are in hiding because they’re scared and their families won’t let them stay.” The Professor leaned forward with a smile. “For you it’s different. Someone has requested that you depart from this wonderful experience and join your own.” 

Richie wiped his eyes and shook his head. “Yeah, right. Nobody wants me.”

“Do you really believe that?” Richie shrugged. “Well, it appears that your good friend, I believe you call him the Boss, has requested a transport for you.”

It was like someone threw cold water on Richie’s face. He leaned forward excitedly on his knees. Was this true? “Really? You mean it?”  
“Yes. You’ll be leaving this afternoon.” A wide smile spread across Richie’s face. “I’ll have someone escort you to your room so that you can collect your things. It has been a pleasure to have you here Richie.”

“Thank you for having me,” he said, still smiling. He let his body fall back on the bed with a gentle bounce. A giggle emerged from his throat. 

He was going home. 

~/~

Tony was stewing in his lab wondering how his life had changed so suddenly. The kid was a great source of joy for him, but he was still a kid. How he could burden him with the life of a double agent? Always looking over your shoulder, keeping secrets, never letting anyone get too close. 

That wouldn’t be fair to him. 

The kid deserved better. 

Tony dropped his head into his hands. He would love to have the kid around. Afterall he helped Tony remember all of the things he’d missed out on when he was a kid. He loved spoiling him. Buying him gifts and watching his face light up. Tony remembered something he’d told himself when he was a kid at Xavier’s.

‘I’d never let my kid grow up alone’. He shook his head at the memory. The kid wasn’t his, not really, but he was starting to feel like it. 

“Stupid telepath,” he grumbled again pulling out his phone. 

As soon as the phone connected the person spoke without any niceties. “Is this line secure?”

“Would I have called you on it if it wasn’t?” 

Tony heard an annoyed grumble and some papers shift before the next words were spoken. “What do you need?”

“I need a flip for a kid,” Tony said tiredly. He sure hoped he wasn’t making a mistake.

“How soon?”

“A day?”

“You ask alot of me.”

“‘Cause I know you’ll do it. I’ll get you the information then go from there.” Standing up Tony figured he might as well work on getting stuff ready for the kid. If he knew Charles the kid was probably already on the way. 

~/~

From the moment that Professor had told him that he was going back to the Boss, Richie hadn’t been able to think about anything else. He couldn’t wait to get back to that fluffy couch and make pillow forts that seemed endless. In the back of his mind, he wished he could be going back to May and Ben, but he knew that if they couldn’t have him then they would want him to be happy. 

And right now Richie was happier than he’d ever been before!

As the tallish house came into view, Richie felt his excitement starting to grow. This was the private garage that led to the house that he would soon call home. A wide grin spread over his face when he saw the familiar pair of black jeans come into his view. Just seconds later the Boss appeared decked out in workbooks and a matching black tank top.

Richie didn’t care about what was in front of him or how he looked at that moment. He threw open the door and jumped out of the car. In a dead sprint, he took off running toward the man who made him feel safe. “Boss,” he yelled. “Boss!” It didn’t take long to get to the man who greeted him with a big smile. He leaped into the man’s arms with a smile of his own all over his face. “I missed you so much!”

“I can see that,” the Boss chuckled at him with Richie still dangling from his arms. Richie never wanted to let the man go. Even after he felt his feet being lowered to the ground Richie still wanted to hold on. “Kid, let’s get you in the house then you can cling to me all you want, ok?” Richie nodded and let himself be set down. He was practically bouncing on in place as he waited for the Boss to get his bags from the car. He couldn’t believe it. He was going to be here for good. They moved into the house quickly with Richie holding one of his bags while the Boss had the other. 

Richie followed the man closely as they moved through the house and into the top floor where the bedrooms were. “This is your room for now.” Just like that all of the enthusiasm drained out of Richie’s face. He felt tears coming to his eyes and his breath started to quicken. He looked at the room then at the Boss. “Hey, whoa! Why the long face?” Richie couldn’t bear the idea that he was going to get sent away again. “Kid!” Every emotion that Richie had been feeling for the last eight months exploded through his body. 

Why did it feel like whenever something good happened it was immediately snatched away? 

He whirled around and punched a hole through the wall and reared back to kick it before he was lurched backward by strong arms. “What the hell was that?” Richie whirled around tears shining in his eyes. 

He turned and glared through blurry eyes at the Boss. “Why’d you bring me here just to send me away?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You said this is my room ‘for now’! I should have stayed,” Richie cried out. The Boss sighed and released his grip on Richie. He felt so miserable as he stood there at the threshold of the room. He used the back of his hand to wipe his eyes. “I’ll just um go back,” he said, trying not to cry again. 

“Kid, you’re,” the Boss started then stopped. Richie sniffed again before moving to go back into the hallway. He’d always like the couch better anyway. The Boss reached out and stopped Richie. He didn’t want to look up at him. Like at all. “I’m just gonna come out and say it. If you had just asked you would have found out that this is only one of my houses. I stay here when I’m vacationing. I’m leaving next week which is why this is your room for now. When we come back you’ll get a new room closer to mine.” Richie felt like the dumbest kid on the planet. He knew that his neck was flushing 

“Oh,” he managed. The Boss’ face softened before he set a hand on Richie’s shoulder. 

“Look, at me bud.” Grudgingly Richie did so. “I know this is confusing and scary, but relax ok?” Richie knew that his ears were red as he let his gaze fall to his feet. “Drop your crap off and let’s go to the shop. I need to figure some stuff out.” Turning around he dropped his bag on the inside of the room. His feet felt heavy as he followed the Boss down the hall and toward the familiar workshop. 

He trudged right behind the Boss before the man stopped abruptly. “Snap out of it, ok? That’s over.” Richie nodded and wiped his eyes again. Embarrassment didn’t just go away or at least it never did for him. The Boss gripped Richie and plopped him down on an elevated chair before spinning it quickly. 

“Whoa,” Richie heard himself laughing. That chair went way faster than it should have. 

“Now first order of business what kind of pizza should we get?” Richie smiled. He loved pizza!

“Can I get pepperoni with bacon and pineapple?” The Boss raised an eyebrow at him. 

“Fruit on pizza? You’re weird. I’ll just get the supreme and order you your own nastiness.” Richie couldn’t help the smile that emerged. 

“Can we get breadsticks and sodas too?” 

“Sure, kid. Whatever.” The Boss went to work ordering the pizzas while Richie looked around the room again. He just loved everything about being in the lab. The tools that were littered everywhere, the cool computers that he had set up, and the smell. He loved the smell so much. It was the perfect mix of motor oil and hard work. 

The Boss reached over and pulled Richie’s chair toward him. “Alright, so now the real first order of business. We need to get you a new name.” Ok, that was not at all what he thought was going to happen. 

“Why?”

The Boss gave him a ‘really’ face? “Kid, they were hot on your trail before you went to that school, or did you forget?”

“Well yeah, but I don’t know why. I mean I was careful. Why’d they think I’m the same kid?” 

“You serious? You were climbing walls. How is that careful?” Richie shrank down a bit. “Look, it’s not your fault. You didn’t know any better.”

“I did ok,” Richie said, feeling rather indignant. “I did good until you grabbed my arm and that lady started screaming.”

“Yeah and then you went to the shelter wearing the same clothes and used your ID.” Richie’s face contorted. How did he know that? “You’ve been using the same ID everywhere you go. That’s a bad idea kid you would have been better off continuing to dumpster dive,” The Boss said, turning his eyes back to the computer. “For a genius your kind of dumb, you know that?” 

Richie ignored that question. “So what are we gonna do?” 

The Boss turned around and looked down at Richie. “Well for starters, you kid are going to lay low for a while and we’re gonna get you some new info.” Richie nodded. “For this to work we have to be very careful especially at first. That’s why we’re leaving the city.” Richie felt embarrassment creep up again. 

“Oh.” It was sure different to have an adult in his life again. Even still he had to admit that it felt nice to have someone else take care of everything. 

“So what do I have to do?” 

“Right now you just have to listen to me and lay low. Ok? No going outside until we leave the city.”

Richie nodded. “That’s easy enough.” 

“We’ll go over some stuff when it happens. You get to pick a new name.”

“What? Why?

“We have to wipe away any doubt that you could be anyone else. From now on you have to be a brand new person. You can never answer to or identify with Richard Parker Jr. He’s dead.” Richie sucked in a sharp breath at that. Richard Parker Jr. was dead? Then a curious thing dawned on him. 

“Wait, you know my name?” The Boss scoffed. 

“I know everything or haven’t you figured that out by now, Richard?”

“It’s Richie, actually.”

The Boss scoffed. “Not anymore it isn’t. That name's going bye-bye.” Richie frowned and moved in the chair to stave off how uncomfortable he was. “You ready?”

“Forever?” The Boss nodded. Suddenly he felt very tired. He loved his aunt and uncle and being their boy. He even liked being a Parker. He was never going to be either of those things ever again. 

And that was a hard pill to swallow. 

Richie’s mind drifted to those nights smashed in between his aunt and uncle on the couch watching movies. A smile crossed his face when he thought about those days he stood on a stool as he and Aunt May danced in the kitchen while making breakfast. He figured that he could leave his name behind as long as he had his memories. “Hey, you want me to help,” the Boss asked, cutting into his thoughts. 

“Choosing a name?”

“Yeah, kid what else?” The man once again pulled Richie’s seat forward before he placed a hand on his shoulder. “Come on, it’s ok. You can still be who you are, you just change hats when you need to.” 

“Kinda like you?” The man smirked at him. “You know how you work all the time, but you’re different with me around the house.”

“Yeah, like that. I knew you were a smart kid.” They turned toward the screen and pulled up a webpage full of names. It seemed like forever that they toyed with names. The pizza came and they ate and looked at more names then ate and looked at more names. 

It was like hours later that Richie found himself changed out of his traveling clothes and into a pair of shorts and a tank top. He was flipped upside down on the chair as he scrolled through names. “You can actually see like that?” Looking up from the name website on the table, Richie nodded. 

“Yeah, very well.” The Boss shook his head with a funny look on his face. “What?”

“Nothing, just wondering if that’s a part of your mutation.” Richie righted himself. 

“Really?”

“Yeah, we can do some tests and figure some things out.” 

“That’ll be great! I tried to research on my own, but that’s why I got sent away.”

“You used a public computer?” Richie nodded. “Don’t worry kid, I’ll teach you to live an untraceable life. Now, please for the love of a God can you please choose a name?” 

“One more page then can we go upstairs?” 

“Fine. Kids,” the man grumbled. Richie glanced over at the Boss’ screen and it happened. 

One name finally jumped out at him.

Peter. 

Richie almost killed himself trying to get to the screen. “Wait, stop. I like that one.” 

“Which one? We’ve looked at a million of them,” the Boss said. 

“That one.”

“Peter?” Even hearing it, he couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face. 

“You sure?” He nodded. The name meant rock like a strong person and he loved it. He was never strong before, but now with these new powers he could be.

Peter could be strong in the way that Richie never was. 

“I want to be Peter.”

“That works for me.” After a few clicks the Boss turned and smiled. 

“Peter Stark was just born.” Peter gave a smile and looked over at the Boss. 

“Since you know everything about me now, what can you tell me about you?” Peter stopped. “Wait, did you say Peter Stark? Are you Tony Stark?” The Boss smirked. “Oh my God!” 

“Took you long enough,” the man said chuckling. 

“So what does this mean?” Tony took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes. 

“Didn’t they teach you anything at that school?” Peter shrugged feeling too overwhelmed to even try to engage. “Legally you will be my son.”

“What? Why me?”

“Do you see anybody else here? Besides, it would be insanely suspicious for me to make up a backstory for a random kid who now lives in my house. It’s much easier to out you as the son I’ve kept hidden for your own safety.”

“Oh.”

“Are you ok with that?” 

“Yeah. It’s just a lot I guess.” 

“Don’t worry, kid. We’re going to go over your backstory so many times it’ll be natural for you.” Peter nodded. “Come here, buddy.” Peter shakily made his way toward Tony who pulled him against his leg. “I wouldn’t have brought you back here if I didn’t want you. You don’t have to be alone anymore.” Peter leaned his head against Tony’s chest. 

“So um you’re my dad?”

“In public, but let’s be honest. We’re friends, right?” Peter nodded. That was probably better. They were really good friends. 

“Yeah,” he paused, “so we’re family now?” Tony chuckled.

“You like that, huh?”

“Yeah, I think I do.”

“Family it is then,” Tony said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh and thank the Lord...Richie is now Peter. You have no idea how hard it was to keep it straight! :P 
> 
> Also...I'm hoping to have the second followup mini-story to a Family Armor up by early next week at the latest...stay tuned for that! 
> 
> Lastly, drop me a comment! I love to hear how you guys feel about the story! 
> 
> See you all soon!


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a new cover photo in honor of this chapter. :) See you at the bottom!
> 
> [](https://postimg.cc/D4W13C7K)  
> 

Peter happily was gaping at the new laptop that Tony got him. He was sitting on top of the island in Tony’s closet while the man prepared for yet another event. He knew that the laptop was supposed to distract him from the fact that he was going to spend another night alone. This was the sixth time in a little over a week and he was overspending his nights held up in the giant apartment by himself. 

“Can I go with you?”

“It’s a boring schmooze fest. You wouldn’t want to go. Hell, I barely want to go.”

“Then stay home with me,” Peter tried as he oohed at the specs on the computer. 

“Nope, I’ve got to work buddy. It’s how you eat.” Peter rolled his eyes. He didn’t eat that much. “Alright, how do I look?” Tony was in a very sharp tuxedo that looked like it was worth more than the laptop Peter had in his hands. 

“You look like you should stay home with me,” he said. Tony rolled his eyes and reached forward to grip Peter under his arms. The little boy closed the laptop and let himself get perched on Tony’s hip. 

“I can’t stay here with you.” Peter rolled his eyes and let himself go limp like a fish whilst still holding onto the laptop.

“But you’re never home,” he whined. Tony chuckled and carried the boy out of the closet. 

“This is the last gala for a while, ok? It’ll be back to just being you and me,” Tony said as he carried Peter down the hall and into the living room. 

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

“Let’s spit shake on it,” Peter suggested, looking Tony dead in the eyes. With that Tony dropped the boy on the couch like a sack of potatoes.

“Not in your life, kid. That’s absolutely repulsive.” Peter stood up to say something but he giggled before he burped right in Tony’s face.

“I’m sorry,” Peter giggled again trying to get close to Tony again. 

Tony shook his head and backed away. “That’s my cue. I’ll see you in the morning, ok?” Peter nodded as he watched Tony enter the elevator. 

“Bye,” Peter said sadly as he watched the elevator close. Turning on his side he picked up his stuffed gray spider. “So, what's the plan for tonight, friend?” The grey little spider looked up at Peter with those adorable eyes. “We need to give you a name. I think what about Ralph? Nah, I don’t so. How about Freddy? No, you don’t look like a Freddy. Oh, what about Webster? Oh yes! I like that one. Webster is perfect. Aunt May showed me a show about him once, but you can’t tell anybody about that, ok?” Peter smiled. “I knew you could keep a secret. “Tony got me this cool tent that I’m gonna put up in here. It makes the house not seem so big when I’m here by myself.” 

Fifteen minutes later, Peter was dressed for bed and securely snuggled into a blanket under his tent with Webster right at his side. “You know, Tony says that I’ve got to be good if I’m going to stay here. Well, he didn’t say it to me, he said it to his friend. He calls him Happy but he looks unhappy to me. He’s nice though, but he always looks like he wants to tell me somethin’ but he never does. Tonight I gotta go through all this family stuff again. I did it before, but Tony said I can’t have any slip-ups. It’s gotta be as natural as my other life was.” 

“It says that my mama’s name was Elenor, but I’ve never met her. It also said that Tony got me right from the hospital. I wonder what that would have been like. I never had no good toys when I was little, but we had a lot of fun, me, Ben, and May. Oh, I’m not supposed to say their names. I miss them. Maybe I should give them spider names,” Peter said. “What do you think?” He scratched the spider’s head. “Yeah, I think so too. That way I can talk about them whenever I want and not get caught. I wish I could go back and see them, but it would be dangerous. I hope one day I can come out of hiding.” 

Peter snuggled deep into the couch as he gripped his new laptop. He was going to watch countless episodes of Hey Arnold while he read through his backstory. Besides, he was way too hopped up on ice cream floats and pizza to go to sleep. 

The house was silent aside from the intro music playing in the background. When Arnold and Jerald showed up on the screen he smiled wide. Every Saturday morning he and Ben would grab bowls of cereal and gear up for a marathon. He figured that even if he couldn’t have his uncle, the tradition didn’t have to end. A yawn escaped him as he opened the laptop to the countless notes that he had to learn. Grandparents, preschools, names of nannies, and homes. 

There was just so much to learn! 

But he and Webster were going to do it. 

~/~

Tony groggily woke up feeling a pillow smash into his face. “What,” he whined. “Peter if that’s you I’m going to punt you into next week.” 

“Nope, it’s your adult friend. What the hell is going on here Tones?” Rolling his eyes and sitting up the man let his eyes adjust to the room. His friend was wearing a tight-fitting t-shirt and a frown. 

“Thank you for offering me your lovely glare.” Flopping back in the bed Tony covered his eyes. “Why are you here so early?”

“Tones, it’s the middle of the day. It’s literally almost dinner time.” Rolling his eyes again Tony tossed himself over then put his feet on the floor. “Have you really been in here asleep this whole time?”

“Yes, that’s what one does in their room, Platypus or have you been away at sea too long to remember?”

“I’m in the Air Force you dick.” Tony snorted.

“Why are you here anyway?”

“Well, I thought you and me could go catch up and hit up the race track, since I haven’t seen you in months, but then I saw a tent and to my great surprise I found a little kid sleeping on your couch! So now I just want to ask you one question, what the hell?” Tony groaned. 

“Fine, fine. I’ll tell you everything.” Tony rubbed his eyes. He told Rhodey everything about the boy who he found scrounging for food and how they ended up being legally being father and son.

“This is insane. You know that right? You can’t be that kid’s dad.” At this point, Tony started to ignore his friend. He wasn’t concerned about what Rhodey was saying. Right now he desperately needed coffee. Tony was content to let Rhodey talk himself out while he did just that. 

~/~

Peter rolled over and let his eyes adjust to the very bright sunlight. He was still buried in the tent which he knew was a good thing especially when he heard his name.

“Come on, the kid can’t just sleep until 2 in the afternoon. It’s not healthy,” a man said. Peter definitely didn’t recognize the voice. “It wasn’t healthy for you and it’s definitely not healthy for him.”

“What do you want from me? I wasn’t even here last night. I don’t care what time he sleeps.” 

“Tony, he’s a kid. He needs structure, boundaries, things like that.”

“The kid and I have a great system. You’re worrying too much,” Tony said, not sounding like he was concerned one bit.

“Ten-year-olds need parents, Tony, not friends.” 

“I heard you! Jeez, you and Happy are like broken records. I got it. Thanks.” 

“Whatever man, I’m just saying.” As he moved himself off the couch he wasn’t sure if he should head into the kitchen or not. 

“Hey Pete, come meet Mr. Rhodes here,” Tony said, waving Peter forward. Shyly he waved at the man. 

“Jeez Tony what’d you do? Clone yourself?” 

“Shutup Rhodes. Pete, you hungry?” Peter looked around and shook his head. 

“I’ll just have a soda,” he said. Tony shrugged.

“Fine by me.” Behind him, Peter heard Rhodey huff. 

“Pete, why don’t you go and get changed, we’ll head down to the lab?” Before Peter left the room he watched Tony and Mr. Rhodes glaring at each other in whispered tones. He figured they were talking about him, but he chose to walk into his room and change anyway. Besides, it didn’t seem like Tony really cared about all those suggestions Mr. Rhodes was saying. As soon as he walked back into the room they stopped talking. 

“Just think about what I said Tones,” Mr. Rhodes said before leaving the room. 

“Um did I do something wrong?” Tony frowned. 

“No. it wasn't your fault. Let’s head down to the lab.” 

“Race you,” Peter said, taking off. Behind him, he could hear Tony yelling about him being a cheater. With that Peter remembered why this was some of the most fun he’d ever had in his life.

~/~

After several months of living with Tony, things had been so good for so long Peter couldn’t remember when things had been bad. He was now feeling much more like Peter than he did Richie. Glasses were a thing of the past as were his inhalers. The biggest thing for Peter was that he was growing stronger every day. Just yesterday he’d picked up the front end on one of Tony's cars with little to no effort. 

He was jacked and it was amazing.

The other part of his newfound powers was by far his ability to not only stick but to walk on the walls and the ceilings. So far his favorite part was he could crawl on the ceiling out of his room, down the hall and back into the lab without Tony ever knowing. He wasn’t sure that he would care, but Peter didn’t want to rock the boat. He was totally enjoying his Peter Pan life and he never wanted to leave Neverland. 

He was working hard to keep his nighttime workings a secret. Tony had told him to stay off his workstation but Peter could touch anything else. There was a part of it that was fun and felt kind of dangerous. He had done a great job of working through his synthetic webs and had even gotten these amazing things to shoot the webs. He hadn’t shown it to Tony yet. That was another thing the man didn’t want Peter doing was making or touching weapons. Peter didn’t get it, but he figured that if Tony didn’t know it wouldn’t hurt him.

Peter was dripping with sweat after doing yet another set of grueling gymnastics exercises. For a guy who didn’t want to hear anything about Peter going near the Avengers he sure had Peter working himself to the bone. Each day after school they would come down and hit the gym.

Well Peter hit the gym. 

Tony just ran the numbers of course. 

“Why do I gotta do this?”  
“You said it was fun,” Tony said, not looking up from the computer.

“It is, but it’s hard.” 

“It’s supposed to be. It’s going to make you stronger,” the man said voice dripping with detachment. 

“I’m already strong. Remember?” Tony threw a towel at Peter who grabbed it with a smile. 

“I know that. You need to stay on your toes. It will help you in the long run.”

“Like when I become an Avenger?” Tony glared at the boy in front of him. “Oh come on! They’re so cool! I don’t get why you hate them so much.”

“I don’t have the AVengers. I just don’t want you worried about becoming one.”

“Why not?”

“You can be anything you want to, Pete.”

“I want to be an Avenger.” 

“Right now, I just want to run ten miles full speed then we’re done.” Peter’s jaw dropped.

“Why ten?” Tony shrugged and pointed at the track. “I bet Avengers don’t have to run around stupid tracks,” Peter grumbled before taking off. It took Peter much longer to run the laps than it should have, but honestly why in the world did he have to work out so hard to just go to tutoring and come home? He moved toward his bag and took a bottle of water and poured it over his head. “I’m taking tomorrow off.” Tony nodded.

“Ok, that works out actually.” Peter looked around super confused. 

“What why?”

“I have an event for the MAC Cadets. They're graduating their most recent class and I’m giving the speech. So you’re on your own for dinner.” Peter felt like his lungs were drying up. 

Huh?

“Why are you going to their graduation?” Tony handed Peter another bottle of water before gently pushing his wet curls out of his face.

“Well it’s something I usually do, you know with me being such a big supporter. Besides, I need to sign you up for the next round of MAC cadets.” Peter spit out his water.

“What? Why?” Tony rolled his eyes.

“You’re not a goat. Stop spitting.”

“Why would I join them? They literally hunt me!” 

Tony scrubbed his hand down his face with an exaggerated motion as he sighed. “Peter, you’re supposed to be my son, remember? If I’m a major advocate of the MCA and the good they’re doing, it makes sense for me to instill those same values in you.” Tony tossed him the packet that parents got for signing up their kids to join.

“But why?”

“Destroy from within.” 

“Oh, yeah, right.” Peter still felt very uncomfortable with the idea, but if Tony thought he could do it then maybe he wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. 

“When am I gonna start?” Tony shrugged.

“Probably in a couple of months. I have to make sure you can pass well enough before I send you into the lion’s den.”

“Oh, ok. Right, I learned all that stuff that you’ve been telling me. I know my birthday and all the good facts. No slip-ups at all.” Tony started to chuckle. “What?”

“That’s not what I’m worried about. You can’t keep secrets kid.”

Peter squawked. “Yes, I can!”

“Uh no you can’t. Remember how you told Aunt Peggy about me taking you out for ice cream at 1 am?”

“That wasn’t me! She told you!”

“You weren’t supposed to tell her! Face it, kid, you can’t keep a secret and until I believe you can you won't’ be going anywhere near those cadets. Hell, you’re lucky I let you out of the house.” It was Peter’s turn to roll his eyes.

“What are you gonna do, brainwash me?” Tony glanced at the boy. “Not uh, that’s not ok Tony.”

“It’ll keep you quiet.”

“What no! That’s wrong.” Tony covered Peter’s head with a towel. 

“Let’s get some food, I’m starving.”

~/~

That night a blaring alarm sounded from a small device on the wall. Peter looked at Tony before frowning. He already knew the man was going to send him upstairs and he’ll have to leave again. 

“I can stay here and finish,” Peter said before Tony could tell him to leave. 

“Buddy, there’s an event again. I’ve gotta go.”

“But that’s no fair! You said you were gonna stay home tonight,” Peter whined.

“Peter,” he started. “I have a job.”

“You said you were gonna stay!”

“I can’t so let’s get you upstairs.” Peter glared up at Tony.

“Fine. You know what, go ahead. I’m working on something now so I’m not leaving.”

“No, you know when I’m working you’re not allowed down here.” Peter opened his mouth, but Tony spoke first. “Peter, I need you to go upstairs and stay there. Now.”

Feeling brave and really annoyed, the boy responded, “I’m going to finish.” 

“No, you need to go play or something. You can finish this when I come back.” 

Peter offered Tony a dangerous pout before crossing his arms. “But, I’m not done yet,” he tried again. Rolling his eyes Tony slammed Peter’s laptop closed before he gripped the boy by the arm and led him to the lab’s exit. 

“I’ll see you soon, ok? I need to work now,” Tony said barely looking at Peter. 

“But,” he started before Tony shook his head and leaned down at Peter’s eye level. 

That was the first time Peter had ever seen Tony’s eyes look angry and it was a bit terrifying. “I’m going out. I don’t know what time I’ll be back, but do not go outside and do not come back to the lab, you hear me? Stay upstairs, watch TV or play with your toys. I’ll be back soon.”

“But,” he started.

“No,” the man thundered. When he saw the look on Peter’s face he sighed. “Just stay upstairs and then we’ll watch a movie or something, ok?” Peter sighed and nodded before turning and walking up the stairs. When he looked back he saw Tony's hands on his hips glaring at him. Peter rolled his eyes and stomped angrily up the stairs. He sulked for a few minutes before deciding that it wasn’t fair. He couldn't go back to the lab. Tony said that this was his home too. He waited a beat before he opened the door carefully and peaked down the steps. He smiled when he saw that it was mostly dark. Just as he got the bottom of the stairs something moved in the lab. 

What he saw changed everything. 

~/~

“IronMan, get your head in the game!” Tony rolled his eyes.

“I’m killing drones, Cap what more do you want?” 

“Your focus! You have to keep your head in the game.” The drone in front of Tony dropped like a sack of potatoes. Looking to his right he saw Hawkeye smirking. 

“Thanks, Legolas!” 

Captain America grumbled again, “Can we please focus?” 

“You know our friend has acquired a ward. He’s just preoccupied,” the Black Widow said.

“You have a ward? How is that possible,” the Hulk said as he fed systems into the machine. 

“He’s not a ward,” Tony said. 

Hulk jumped in then, “So it is true! When do we get to meet him?” Tony rolled his eyes at his green friend. 

“Oh boy,” Captain America muttered. Tony spun on his heels. “We’ve got company guys.”

“Yeah, and uh IronMan, I think you’re gonna want to see this.” Tony turned around and he could barely believe his eyes. Standing right there in the middle of a very volatile battle was ten-year-old Peter wearing the oversized IronMan helmet he’d modified for him as a toy.

He was going to absolutely kill that kid.

“Welcome to parenthood,” Hawkeye said snorting. 

~/~

The IronMan suit landed with a thud dropping Peter off gracefully. He looked around and saw the battle in full force. He could easily see all the Avengers fighting. 

Wow! 

Running forward he saw one of the robots fall from the sky as another one rounded the corner. He slipped on his web shooters and pulled one right out of the sky. It twitched before it finally stopped moving. 

Score! He did a little happy dance until he saw several of the robots now coming his way. He leaned back on his heels and kicked one when it came toward him. A hiss escaped his lips. Maybe he shouldn’t use his shin to kick them anymore. 

Another machine put a beam on his chest and Peter rolled out of the way. He was going to web it, but out of nowhere several IronMan armors appeared and knocked a few of the drones out of the sky. Peter moved and ready to use his webs and small bursts of energy from the repulsor he’d taken to help the Avengers even more. “Look out!” Turning around he saw one of the drones coming directly toward him full speed. This was it, he steeled himself to wait for them. He was going to knock that thing out of the sky and show everyone he was ready to take on this fight. 

Peter held his hand up as the drone approached him. Just as he readied to aim, the blaster sputtered out. 

Crap!

Peter used the webshooter to shoot out a web that gripped onto a building, and he used it to pull himself out of the line of fire. His relief only lasted a moment as the drone got close to him. Spinning around he reared back and kicked it knocking the head clean off. “Ow!” Ok, it was definitely bad to kick metal with his legs. He didn’t have time to think about it though. Unfortunately, the kick caused him to spin right into the shooting range of another drone. The blast shot right through him snapping his web and he fell to the ground with a splat. Peter groaned but tried to shake it off.

That’s what an Avenger would do.

He realized he didn’t have any time to waste though. He pushed himself up as the drone came roaring back in his direction. It landed right in front of him. Peter tried to shoot a web but the stupid thing jammed. With a quick glance up he could see IronMan’s armor fighting in the sky next to Captain America. Drones were falling out of the sky left and right, but none of them were looking at Peter. He held up his little hand again and aimed.

Please let this work! 

The drone watched as the little repulsor failed again and loaded its own weapon poised to fire. At the last second, a body knocked him out of the way and spun. He looked up to see the red hair of Black Widow before he felt himself lurched forward and blasted into the air. It took a moment before he realized it was IronMan! They flew through the sky for almost a minute before Peter was planted on the roof of a giant high rise. He was shoved hard into a room. “Stay here,” the voice commanded before the door slammed shut. Peter furrowed his brows...that sounded a lot like Tony.

He kicked the wall and sank down to the floor. He wanted to help! Grunting Peter tried the door only to find that it was locked. 

Just great.

Peter wasn’t sure how much later it was that he heard the distinct sounds of heavy metal boots clanking as the IronMan landed. The door burst open and he felt himself slung across the now well-lit room that looked to be some sort of an indoor garage. “What the hell was that?” 

Looking into the cold alloy mask of the IronMan armor, Peter felt himself growing annoyed yet again. “I was helping.”

“Sure you were.”

“I was,” Peter shot back.

“You think so? What I saw was a kid who was trying to play dress up and almost got himself killed!” Peter glared at the suit through his overgrown helmet. He was almost positive that he was talking to Tony now. 

“I was! I knocked two of ‘em down!” The IronMan armor eyes flashed. 

“You could have been killed! Not to mention captured or worse! What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that I could help! I’m good and I helped,” he yelled back. It didn’t seem like Tony’s voice heard him which made Peter’s blood boil. 

Tony had lied to him!

“Of all the stupid and dumb stunts to pull,” he screamed while Peter just stood there. He thought of all those times that Tony had left for ‘work’ when in actuality he had been putting his life in danger as a superhero. What would happen to Peter if something happened to Tony? He just found a new home and now he was going to lose it again.

It just wasn’t fair!

Behind Tony, Peter could see the other Avengers landing and arriving in the room. His ears suddenly went red at the idea of being scolded in front of the world’s heroes. “Are you even listening to me,” Tony screamed at Peter.

“Yeah,” he shot back.

“Are you kidding me right now? You actually have an attitude?” Peter watched the armor turn toward the Avengers for a second before turning to look at him again. “Look, there are things you don’t understand.” 

“Yeah, like you,” Peter spat.

“What? You know what. I don't have to explain myself to you.”

“Then I’m not explaining myself to you!” In the background, Peter heard Hawkeye offer a whoop.

“I like this kid,” he heard winged Avenger say. Tony kept his eyes fixed on Peter, but he wasn’t backing down.

“All you do is lie,” Peter screamed.

“What?” Peter felt all of his feelings bubbling up. Right in front of him was a metal death trap controlled by the only person who had promised him a life worth living. What would happen if someone found him out? Where would Peter go then? The fear of losing Tony came bubbling out as anger.

“You promised you’d stay home, but I saw it take off after you left!”

“Stop talking, right now.”

“No! I can say whatever I want!” 

“Listen to me right now. Don’t say another word,” Tony said sounding unusually scared.

“You can’t tell me what to do you liar! You said you cared, but you don’t! You don’t really care about kids like me.” He wanted to tell Tony that he was wondering if the man actually cared about him, but he couldn’t. It was too scary of a thought. Instead, he went for the worst thing he could think of. “You’re probably in some bunker somewhere away from the action like the coward you are. Fight from afar,” he mocked. In the background, Peter heard one of the Avengers whistle and another go ‘whoops’. 

“This kid is great,” he heard from Hawkeye before the man chuckled. Peter didn’t care though He felt his anger boiling. Tony didn’t respond to him so Peter dug in further. 

“It’s not like you’re really strong enough to be an Avenger anyway! You’re probably somewhere safe watching from a room or something shaking hands with those fancies. You’re smart, big whoop.” Instead of reacting to Peter’s words, Tony’s eyes were trained on the boy’s hands. “What?”

“You went down there after I told you not to?”

“What’s the big deal? I do it all the time! It’s not like you notice or anything. You’re always at parties or something,” Peter said, moving his hands in front of him for emphasis putting the altered repulsors on full display. When Peter finished his tirade he expected to see admiration or smiles on the faces of the Avengers, but instead, he saw grimaces and pinched faces. With one glance at the IronMan armor, he realized he might have gone a bit too far. It was like everything paused for a moment as the eyes of the suit landed back on Peter’s.

“The big deal is that I told you very specifically not to touch anything in there unless I was with you. I told you no weapons, kid.” 

Peter rolled his eyes and ignored Tony’s question. Feeling brave, he decided to press a bit further. “What does it matter? I’m training on my own and it worked! All I have to do is fixed those bugs in ‘em. Just you wait, I’m gonna be a real Avenger,” he said. Peter was breathing deeply as he glared straight ahead before he swore that he saw fire shoot out from behind the mask. His bravado melted immediately. The IronMan armor was dangerously still and no one seemed to move. 

Uh oh. 

Peter realized his attempt to save face had backfired...big time. He breathed a couple of breaths in anticipation before to his horror the IronMan armor spit the angry red-faced man out in one swoop. Peter backpedaled briefly as Tony was rapidly approaching him. Before he could turn to flee or get any words out of his mouth in his defense he was pinned against Tony’s hip as the man rained vicious smacks to his backside. Peter yelped and squirmed but it was no use as Tony rained unending and thunderous smacks down. “I’m sorry,” he cried out hoping for Tony to take sympathy on him, but the man said nothing. Finally after several more vicious smacks, Tony stopped letting Peter down and the boy stumbled a bit. He was so embarrassed. When he looked up all he could see through his blurry eyes was Tony glaring down at him furiously. Then it dawned on him that he was crying like a little kid and in front of the Avengers! 

This was the worst day ever. 

Tony sharply turned Peter toward the Avengers and pointed. “Apologize to them for almost getting them killed!” Peter bit his lip even though none of them could see it behind his mask. 

“Iron Man, it’s ok. The kid was trying to help,” Hawkeye said.

“No, he needs to know that he could have cost each of us our lives tonight,” Tony said. The Captain stepped forward. 

“He’s right son, in order for us to stay alive, we have to work together as a team and stick to the plan. Communication and trust are what our team depends on.” Peter sniffed behind the mask feeling humiliated more than he had before. 

“I’m sorry I put you in danger,” he said as loud as he could muster. Tony smacked the side of Peter’s helmet. 

“They can’t hear you,” he growled. Peter desperately wanted to wipe his eyes, but he couldn’t.

“I’m sorry I put you in danger.” Each of the Avengers nodded and offered him a smile. Tony sent him to the corner of the room to wait while the adults talked briefly. While he waited he miserably tried to not feel like a total loser. Not only did his stupid web-shooters not work, but he’d made a total fool of himself in front of the Avengers. He sniffed as he lingered around the room trying to stay as far away from the adults as possible. He’d wanted so badly to meet them and now he just wanted to curl into a ball. 

“Webster!” Turning around Peter saw Tony waving him over toward the team. It was obvious that the man was upset with him but he made his oversized shoes shuffle toward the group anyway. 

“Hey, IronMan here says you’ve been training. Keep up the good work, you were obviously green out there, but you did good,” the Hulk said. Peter nodded behind the giant mask. Each Avenger offered him a gentle pat on the helmet before bidding Tony farewell and leaving. Another Iron Man suit appeared. It was slightly smaller than normal and that’s when Peter realized it was for him.

“Get in, kid.” 

“Why can’t I fly with you?” 

“Because your clothes aren’t stealth. We could be tracked.” 

“Oh.”

“Get in, kid,” he said firmer. Peter climbed in and watched Tony do the same. As his suit took off he wondered if this would be what got him sent away for good.

~/~

As soon as they landed, Peter was filled with dread. Tony barely even looked at him the entire time that they were walking through the house. Peter moved to go to his room, but Tony’s hands reached out and stopped him. 

“What was the first thing I told you when we agreed to this?” Peter looked down. Tony smacked the side of his head. “Answer me!”

“You said this was dangerous and I had to be trustworthy if I wanted to stay.” 

“That’s right,” the man said with his hands on his hips. “You proved to me that you aren’t mature enough for anything right now.”

“What?”

“You heard me. No training or leaving the house again at all until I say.” 

“That’s not fair!”

“It doesn’t matter what’s fair or not! You could have been killed or captured or worse!” Peter shook his head angrily. “Not another word, Peter. And give me those things you made.”

“What things?”

“Don’t play dumb.” Sighing, he pulled off the web-shooters and gave them to Tony.

“Can you help me fix them?” 

“When you’re ready, I will.” Fire shot through Peter. 

“I hate you. I wish I never came here,” he screeched before running down the hall. 

“That makes two of us,” Tony yelled back.

~/~

Peter was laying on his bed holding onto Webster with tears running down his face when he heard the call. Sniffing, he rolled over and made his way out of his room and into the hallway.

“In here,” he heard Tony say gruffly. Peter was still walking a little gingerly but it didn’t stop him from walking. “Someone said you got some pretty good cuts on your legs from those robots.” Without another word, Tony picked Peter up and set him on the counter in the bathroom. Without anymore words he went to work cleaning Peter’s cuts and bandaging up the scrapes. For what seemed like an agonizingly long time neither of them spoke. Peter was trying hard not to cry but the pain was pretty bad. “What’s wrong?”

“It stings,” Peter said lamely. 

“It will. We’re almost done.” Tony grabbed two ice packs and started to wrap them around each of Peter’s shins with an ace bandage. “This is a dangerous life, Peter. What happened tonight could have been a million times worse. If I can’t trust you then we’re going to have to figure out an alternative.” 

“What? What do you mean?” Tony pinched his fingers deep into his eyes. 

“Peter, we go through great lengths to keep our identities concealed. I told you not to leave the house and you still did it. I told you not to go downstairs and you still did it. I don’t know if you really understand how much danger you put us all in. You now know things that less than ten people in the entire world know. That makes you dangerous and it makes this entire thing way more complicated than it already was.” Peter dropped his head. “Mutant children are outlawed, if I hadn’t scrambled that footage they might have thought we were raising up an army of mutant child soldiers. I know you think this is fun and you can use your powers freely, but that’s not how everyone else lives. If they had gotten word of what was going on then we could all end up in jail or,” he broke off. Tony sucked in a tense breath. “This isn’t a game.” 

Peter sucked in a tense breath of his own. He knew he was going to end up screwing this up. “So I have to go back to the school?” 

“No.”

Peter’s head shot up. “Really?” 

“No, not unless you want to.” 

“I don’t! I want to stay here,” he paused, “with you.” Tony nodded before setting Peter back on the ground.

“Then you need to figure out where your allegiances stand.” Peter furrowed his eyebrows. 

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“I can deal with a lot of things, Peter. I can’t handle being betrayed. If you’re going to live here, if we’re going to be family,” he paused pondering on his words, “if we’re going to be a real family then I have to be able to trust you. Tonight you not only took your life and put it in danger, but you did the same to me and everyone on that team.” Peter bit his lip as the words punched him in the face. “Trust is everything in this life, kid. Without trust, we have nothing and if we have nothing what are we doing here?” 

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Sometimes, sorry isn’t good enough.” Tears poured down Peter’s cheeks just as Tony turned his back to him before moving to leave the restroom.

“Please, just tell me how I can fix it,” he pleaded. “I’ll do anything.” Tony held up a hand and didn’t turn around.

“Go to sleep, we’ll talk tomorrow.”

“Please, Tony,” he tried.

“Go,” Tony snapped. Sucking in a breath Peter ran from the room crying. 

Why did he always ruin everything?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there you have it...actions speak louder than words and the words they said were pretty loud too. :(
> 
> Let me hear your thoughts. Do you think Peter will finally learn the error of his ways? Or do you think Tony's going to call it quits?


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone has had a Happy Mother's Day!!

Peter felt like his head was on fire. Wait, no he felt like his entire body was on fire. He hadn’t felt this bad since his powers appeared. He groaned, no that had been worse. Moving onto his side, he felt like his entire body was being chewed on by ants. 

It had been a whole week since the doomsday. 

And honestly, it made sense that his suckstastic week would end up with him getting some foreign bug that would eat him alive. With his luck, it was probably some spider disease that doctors would be able to figure out. 

His alarm clock beeped and he groaned. He was supposed to be packing so they could go to Tony’s house in Malibu. It was supposed to help him keep everything under wraps, but he wasn’t so sure that was the real reason. Rolling over he put his feet on the floor only to pull them back. 

“Ok, walking is a bad idea.” He turned his legs on the side. His head was hurting so bad he couldn’t remember the exact time that he was supposed to be ready. As soon as he tried to walk he realized that his legs definitely weren’t ready for that. Giving up he flopped backward onto his bed, but even that hurt. “What’s going on,” he said holding back his tears. Tensing up he pushed his eyes closed only to have his ears ring very loudly before suddenly everything was very loud. Clamping his hands over his ears he was able to dull almost everything except voices.

“He’s just a kid, man. Give him a break,” the first voice said. 

“My heart dropped to my stomach when I saw him standing there. He could have been killed,” Tony said way louder than Peter wished he did. 

“But he wasn’t. It’s a lot to take on Tones. You got to him in time and be clear with him.” At this point, Peter wasn’t sure if it was Mr. Rhodes or Happy but either way it wasn’t anything that would change Tony’s mind. If anything had been true for Peter in the last week it was that Tony was perfectly fine ignoring him. 

“I don’t know if I can do this,” Tony said finally. 

“Tony, don’t be too hard on yourself. You’re just scared.”

“I was scared, I’m pissed off now. I’ve told him like a million times to stay out of my lab and to not go anywhere I haven’t already taken him.”

“He’s a kid, Tony. Telling a kid not to is like lighting a fire under them to do it. You know that.” 

“He should have listened to me!” Peter winced and turned onto his side trying to muffle the sound. 

“Why? You always say that you guys are buddies.”

“Don’t start.”

“He doesn’t need a buddy, he needs a father.”

“You know I can’t be that,” Tony growled. “This was a bad idea. I shouldn't have let them talk me into it.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Yes, I do.” Pushing his scratchy throat and pain to the back of his mind, Peter turned over and tried to get some more sleep. Before he closed his eyes he saw Webster staring at him. With tears in his eyes, he grabbed his only friend and held him close. 

“You’re right buddy,” he whispered to the little spider. “At least this is my room for a little bit longer.” 

~/~

When Peter woke up again he didn’t know how much later it was, but he knew that he was definitely much sicker. He’d woken up to Tony yelling at him and banging on his door. It had hurt his ears bad, but he knew that if Tony knew it hurt him he wouldn’t have done it. Well, at least he hoped so. 

He had rushed to take a shower but he almost screamed before catching himself. In the mirror, he saw that his whole body was full of red itchy spots. The shower seemed to make it a thousand times worse. It felt like a million fire ants had bitten him and it was excruciating. His head was pounding and he wanted to cry, but he didn’t. Somehow he managed to get himself dressed downstairs on time so that Tony didn’t yell at him again. Besides he didn’t even know where they were going. Tony had said they were Malibu, but Peter knew that could be a lie. Tony was always changing his mind. Who drove from New York to California?

When he got downstairs, Tony was already in the driver’s seat staring at his phone. Peter didn’t bother to pretend that he was wanted, he climbed into the backseat only to have Tony snap at him and point to the passenger seat. “It’ll be too cramped back there and I don’t want you whining the entire trip.” 

Sighing Peter moved into the front of the car and leaned the chair back so that he could look out the window. 

He was sure that wherever he was going, he would manage somehow when he got there. 

~/~

About an hour into the trip that noticed Peter’s constant fidgeting. At first, he’d tried to ignore it, but it was like every ten seconds the boy was flopping over or sliding up and down the seat. He had to admit that he thought it was an attention grab at first, but when he heard the boy gave off a small hiss he had to say something. “What’s wrong with you?” Peter hissed again but he didn’t respond. “I’m talking to you.” 

“N-Nothing,” Peter said, sounding like he was in pain. Tony frowned. He’d checked Peter a couple of days after the battle and his injuries were healing just fine. 

“Yeah, not true. What’s wrong?” Again Peter didn’t say anything. “Are you sick?”

“I’m ok,” Peter croaked before curling on himself more. His voice betrayed him miserably as it sounded just as bad as he felt. 

“Look at me.” When Peter didn’t move, Tony gently pushed the hood off his face and winced. “You’re covered in spots.” A bevy of emotions passed through Tony in those moments. How could he have missed this? Almost every inch of the boy’s little face had some sort of redness on it. 

“No, don’t stop, I’m ok. Really,” Peter said. Tony didn’t bother to respond. Instead, he continued to get over so that he could pull over to the side of the road. He turned toward Peter so that he could get a better look at him.“How long have you been like this?” Peter rubbed his hand over his jacketed arm. Tony raised an eyebrow at the gesture. 

“A couple of days,” Peter said finally.

“What? Why didn’t you tell me?” In a split second, Tony saw the entire range of emotions cover Peter’s face before he started to cry. 

“I’m sorry! Please don’t be mad!” Tony sighed and rubbed his hand down his face. 

“Don’t cry ok?” Peter sniffed and nodded before curling into himself more. “I’m gonna get us a room and some stuff to help you. Have you had the chickenpox before?” Peter thought for a second before realizing he couldn’t think very well at the moment. “I’m not sure, but I’m almost positive that’s what you have.” Peter chuckled. “What?” 

“Have you ever met a spider with the chickenpox?” Tony found himself laughing as well. 

“Yeah kid, who knew?”

~/~

Peter was laying in a pretty nice hotel room that Tony seemed very disturbed by. At this point, he didn’t care if it was an air mattress. He was just happy to be able to stretch his legs out and not be stuck in that small car with Tony.

When they first got there Tony had made them change the sheets and all of the linens in the room before Peter could lay down. It seemed like overkill but Peter’s head was hurting so much that he tried not to care. Then before he could even crawl in bed Tony had taken pictures of his Peter’s face and arms to send to someone that Peter stopped caring to listen to. Peter would have done anything for Tony to just let him get in the bed. 

“Bruce says you’ve definitely got the chickenpox kid. So I’m gonna get you in an oatmeal bath, ok?” Peter looked up as Tony walked back into the room. He had really only caught that one part of what the man said. 

“Oatmeal?”

“Yeah, it sounded weird to me too, but he’s the doctor. He says it’ll help. Um, get out of those clothes and I’ll start the water, ok?” As skeptical as he was, Peter agreed. He waited for Tony to run the bath and then with his pajama shorts on he found himself sitting in the bathtub in cold water. 

Almost immediately, Peter wanted out. 

Peter hated the smell and feel of the oats against his skin. “What’s wrong? Why are you screwing your face up like that?”

“Don’t like it,” he muttered. “Cold,” he said with a pout.

“It’s not cold. It’s lukewarm.” Peter growled. 

“It’s cold.”

“It's got to stay that temperature.”

“Want out.” Tony looked up from his phone on the toilet and shook his head at Peter who was already trying to stand up. Peter glared at Tony as hotly as he could.

“Too bad, it’ll help you stop itching so you’re staying in there.” After a staring contest, Peter finally gave in. Flopping back in the water, Peter harrumphed and crossed his arms over his chest. “Lean back, Peter,” Tony said, not looking up. 

“Then it’ll get in my hair and my nose.” Tony grunted at the boy's remark.

“No, it won’t.” 

“How do you know,” Peter smarted back. 

“Just stay in there, Peter.” The boy gave an exaggerated eye roll but leaned back. Peter grumbled under his breath but didn’t move. For the next few minutes, all Peter did was glare angrily at the wall while Tony was busy trying to calm himself down. He couldn’t believe how ornery the kid was. All he could think about was getting the kid off to sleep so that he could clear his head. 

~/~

Peter sat in the freezing water knowing Tony obviously hated him. Why would he make him take that smelly bath in that cold water? The man said it was warm, but Peter knew that it wasn’t at all. Ever since he got his powers he was always cold and he was sure that he would be shivering at any minute. 

“Can I get out please,” he whined miserably for what felt like the hundredth time. Tony growled.

“Not until the timer goes off,” Tony said, still looking at his phone. Peter felt fire flicker through him. He could at least look at Peter. His teeth started to chatter as his body went into overdrive. 

Peter let his mind go back to the last time that he was sick with his aunt and uncle. Wilbur and Charlotte he started to call them. They would snuggle him in his favorite old blanket and they would take turns making him soups and telling him about his parents. 

The alarm beeped signaling the end of his torture fest and Peter jumped up as fast as he could. Unfortunately, he also brought most of the water out of the tub with him. The glare Tony shot him was fierce. His mind was swirling with more fear and worries than he knew could esiste. He pushed himself against the edge of the tub cowering from the glare. When Tony reached for him he jumped back and slipped before falling and landing roughly on the edge the tub. 

And it hurt.

A lot. 

He didn’t even care as he started to cry. Everything just hurt so bad and he wanted May and Ben. Peter knew that it was that deep wail cry when he felt it in the middle of his chest. His Uncle Ben had always called those his ‘Hurt Puppy’ cries. He wanted his aunt and uncle so badly. They always made him feel safe and happy. He felt a cool hand reach out and touch his arm and he hissed. “Hurts,” he whimpered.

“We need to get you out of the tub, buddy. Come on.” Peter tried to stand slowly, but Tony did most of the work. It still hurt everywhere but he didn’t itch as bad. With wobbly legs he let Tony wrap a towel around him before leading him back to bed. “Dry off good so you can wear this shirt, ok?” Peter looked up and he didn’t want to wear that shirt or any shirt right now. 

“No. I don’t wanna wear that shirt.” Tony rolled his eyes.

“Then what shirt do you want to wear?”

“I don’t wanna!” 

“I don’t care,” Tony growled louder than he wanted. Peter started to cry again before he grabbed the stupid shirt. “Hold on, Peter. I have to put this ointment on you.” Peter pushed the bottle away from him knocking it to the floor. 

“What now?”

“It stinks!” 

“Peter! I don’t want to hear any more complaining, got it? I’m going to put this stuff on you then you’re going to put on your clothes and go to sleep. You’ll feel better.” The entire time Tony applied the calamine lotion, Peter was crying and whining. He could tell that it was annoying Tony but he didn’t care. Everything hurt so bad and he was miserable. 

Why was Tony being so mean?

~/~

Tony put the lotion on Peter and finally managed to wrangle the boy into a fresh pair of shorts and a loose t-shirt before Peter started to whine again. Tony was two seconds away from smacking the boy and even as pissed off as he was he didn’t want to do that not to a sick kid. With a resigned huff he shoved the stupid spider in the kid’s arms and told him to go to sleep. He barely paused before he stepped onto the ensuite patio.

On autopilot he dialed the familiar number as soon as it stopped ringing tony Started talking. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” he said, not even offering a greeting.

“What’s wrong Jackie?” Tony put his palm against his forehead with a deep sigh. 

“Pete’s sick and I’m about to lose it.” A chuckle emerged from the other end of the phone. “Are you laughing at me?”

“Oh Jackie, you’re always so wound up. It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not! He’s whiney and annoying and doing like a million stupid things all at once.” 

“What do you mean?”

“He’s an ornery little jerk,” Tony huffed. 

“Didn’t you say that he was ill, right?” 

“Yes. Why?”

“Jackie, he’s sick. When kids are sick they get mean. Sometimes whiny and downright rude. It’s all normal,” she said kindly.

“So what do I do?”

“Just remind him that even though he’s in pain he still needs to be nice to you because you're trying to help him.” Tony sighed. “You haven’t done that so far, huh?”

“No. No I haven’t.”

“That’s ok dear. You don’t need to worry about being perfect. Just be there for him. He’s probably wanting that more than anything.” Tony sighed she was right, like always. 

“You’re right.”

“I know I am.” 

“We’re flying out to Malibu.”

“That’s wonderful. Send out Harold to accompany me.”

“What?” Ok, he definitely didn’t ask her. 

“Oh Jackie, I haven’t seen you in months and I’ve never met your boy in person. Send Harold and we’ll have a fun time in California.” Tony couldn’t stop the smile that spread across his face. His Aunt Peggy was his rock in the midst of a storm. He spoke to her for what felt like forever and yet a few moments. 

~/~

As soon as Tony had fled to the patio Peter had clutched his friend to his chest. “I made a mistake,” he said into the spider’s fur. “I should have put the shirt on, but it hurts. Everything hurts. I miss Wilbur and Charlotte. They made everything better.” Peter winced when the scratchy spider fur touched his sensitive skin. “They would make this better. Charlotte always knew what to do and Wilbur always made me feel better.” 

Peter spoke with his little friend until his eyes started to droop. He was so excited to get a chance to sleep. He yawned as he said, “I’m scared. What if I was so bad Tony sends me away?” Peter smiled at his friend. “Yeah, I know you’ll come with me. I just don’t want to be alone. It sucked when I was by myself before. Tony and me, we’re buds and I don’t want to have to go back to shelters and stuff. I was always so hungry and cold.” Peter looked at the spider and scratched his ears. “Yeah Webster, you’re right. I should sleep. It’ll be better when I wake up. So far you’ve been the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Promise me no matter what you and I will always be together.” 

What Peter didn’t know as he snuggled himself into the bed was that Tony had heard the last half of his conversation. With his back against the glass, Tony wondered where they should go from here. 

~/~

Tony rolled over to the sounds of talking. He thought Peter was talking to the stupid spider again but when he turned over he saw Peter was shirtless and sweat was beading against his head. “Hot,” he heard. “So hot.”

Sitting up Tony blinked at the time. It was just before one-thirty in the morning. Great. He got two hours of sleep. Putting his feet on the ground he reached over and grabbed the thermometer and made his way toward Peter. He stuck the thermometer in Peter’s ear while the boy continued to whine incoherently. 

When it beeped everything changed. 

He dropped the thermometer and reached for his phone. “Come on, pick up.” 

“Hello?” 

“Bruce, sorry to wake you, but the kid’s got a high temp it’s 104.4. That’s a three-degree jump in a couple of hours.” 

“Tony that’s too high! You have to get him into a cold bath right away. He could suffer brain damage if you don’t.” 

Tony, feeling his heart beating rapidly in his chest at Bruce’s words, dropped his phone and ran into the bathroom. He turned the water on and let it fill the tub as quickly as possible. Running back into the room he scooped Peter off the bed and grabbed him into a bridal carry. He didn’t even wait for Peter to respond before he took them and plunged them into the jacuzzi style tub. He hissed as the water was unbearably cold and Tony’s pajama pants weren’t helping him at all.

“Come on buddy, you gotta snap out of this,” he said and he wiped Peter’s chest with the cold washcloth.” 

Tony wasn’t sure if Peter could understand him or if he was even awake but he felt like now was a great time to tell the boy how he felt. 

“I know I haven’t been the nicest to you since last week, but please don’t give up on me, ok? I’m not used to this at all. It’s so much easier to just send money to people than to make sure they’re ok all the time.” Tony dunked the washcloth again before dabbing Peter’s head with it.

“You scared me so bad and I was so mad at you. I told you not to do that and you did it anyway. My heart felt like it was going to explode when I saw you in the middle of that battle. My God kid, what were you thinking?” Tony scoffed. “I know what you were thinking. You've been saying it all along. You want to be an Avenger, but I can’t let that happen. It’s a dangerous life full of treachery. You’re too nice a kid to live this life. Too nice.” Tony sucked in a deep breath. “You remind me so much of me sometimes. I used to drive my old man nuts too and why I just wanted to spend time with him.” Tony felt tears slipping down his cheeks. “I ignored you just like he used to do to me. You’re just a little boy. That’s why I didn’t want you to live with me. You’re too good for me, kid.”

“Cold,” Peter whimpered.

“Buddy, we’ve got to get your temperature down. I can’t take you to a hospital so this has to work.” Peter started to cry with his eyes closed and it was the worst sound that Tony ever heard. As Peter cried Tony did too. 

~/~

A couple of hours later after the five temperature checks, Peter’s temperature was now down to a safe range of 102.3. It was still high, but it wasn’t dangerous. He was sitting in the recliner that the hotel supplied thinking as he watched Peter closely in the bed next to him. The boy didn’t look as miserable as he did before, but he could still see the discomfort on the boy’s face. He had managed to coat most of the red spots with the baking soda paste that his Aunt Peggy had suggested and thankfully seemed to work at least a little bit. 

Just as he was falling asleep he felt a tap on his arm. Opening one of his eyes he saw Peter standing there looking but younger than ten. The boy’s eyes were red but at least they were clear. “Hey, buddy.” Peter looked like he wanted to say something, but all that came out instead was a look of complete distress. “What’s wrong?” Tony looked into Peter’s eyes and was taken back to a night from his own childhood. 

_“I don’t coddle children, Anthony,” his father said not looking up from his book. “Take an aspirin and go to sleep.”_

“You want to sit with me?” Peter looked up and nodded. Tony softened instantly. He reached behind Peter and grabbed the light blanket off the bed and wrapped it around the small boy before he pulled him over the arm of the chair and set him on his lap. Instantly, Peter curled into a ball on Tony’s lap and rested his head against Tony’s chest. “You feeling better?”

“Still itchy,” the boy said with a croaky throat. 

Tony wiped Peter’s hair out of his face. “Is it a little better?” Peter nodded. As he finally was able to take a breath, tears pricked his eyes as he thought what could have happened to the boy who’d become his whole world. “That’s good. I didn’t put any more of that lotion on you. My aunt said,” was all he got out before Peter put his small finger to Tony’s lips. 

“Ssh,” the boy said. Tony chuckled. He reached down and slid the chair back to recline further. Peter was right, they were both exhausted. 

~/~

After another several hour rounds of temperature checks and oatmeal baths, Tony was utterly exhausted while Peter looked like he was about to bounce off the walls. He knew that Bruce suspected that Peter’s intense case of chickenpox was due to some type of immunity issue from his healing factor, Tony was surprised that the symptoms seemed to disappear rather quickly. 

When he went to apply more of the paste he realized that most of Peter’s spots were gone or fading. He also realized that his temperature was now decreasing at a wonderful rate. With his temperature decreasing, Peter was now bouncing on his knees watching television holding onto Webster. Before Tony realized it he was fast asleep.

Jolting awake at the sound of a door clicking Tony leaned forward. What was that? Yawning, he called for Peter, but he got no response. “Peter!” Tony jumped out of the chair and ran toward the bathroom to find it empty. Turning around he looked around the room and under the beds before he realized that Peter was gone. 

With his heart hammering in his chest he opened the door and looked down the hall to see if anyone was in the hall. 

“Peter!” Running up and down the hall, he didn't see Peter anywhere. Where was he? Tony threw the fire exit open and fled down the stairs trying to frantically make it to the lobby. They were on the fifth floor so it felt like a mile before he made it to the bottom floor. When he opened the door he hoped to see Peter, but instead, the lobby was mostly empty. 

Where was he? 

Turning to his right he saw movement as a small boy grabbing a giant bag of food from a delivery man. “Peter!” The little boy looked at Tony before his mouth fell open. Moving rapidly toward him he didn’t wait for a second to grab Peter by the arm and lay a sharp smack to his backside. “Why did you leave the room?” Peter opened his mouth before closing it. “Answer me!” Instead of talking Peter’s face crumpled and he let out that Godawful cry he’d been doing for the last few days. 

“He was picking up this order, sir,” the delivery person said. Tony noticed people now milling around them staring. He reached down and pulled Peter onto his hip and the boy buried his face in his shoulder. Tony reached down and grabbed the bag.

“This was paid for already.” Tony nodded and made quick work for getting back to their room and away from the scene they were creating. As soon as the doors to the elevator closed Tony let out a sigh of relief. Peter was still clinging to him and crying pitifully as Tony got to the door of the room. With a groan, he realized that he didn’t bring a key to the room with him. 

“Fabulous.” As if he knew what Tony was thinking Peter sniffed before handing Tony a room key. Happy that one of them used their mind, Tony opened the door to the room and stepped inside. As soon as he set Peter on the ground the boy fled to the bathroom and slammed the door. 

Great. 

Tony gave Peter a few minutes before he knocked on the bathroom door. “Hey bud, come on out now.” He heard the little boy moving inside the small room before emerging with dry cheeks. “Let’s have dinner.”

Peter took a deep breath before speaking softly. “I don’t want to eat.” Tony sighed.

“You have to eat Pete. If you don’t you can’t take your medicine.”

“I’m feeling much better so I don’t need to eat.” 

“Nice try, come on let’s eat.” 

“I don’t have to listen to you, you’re not my dad, you’re just my friend.” Tony didn’t respond, instead, he gestured toward the empty seat. Peter scowled but sat down.

“So what’d you get us?” Peter shrugged. “Come on you went through all this trouble. Tell me about this feast.” Rolling his eyes Peter reached into the white bag and pulled out several containers of food. 

“I got you a turkey sandwich with pita chips and blueberry pie.” With that, Peter dropped his eyes and pulled his container toward him. 

“What’d you get?” 

“Just a cheeseburger sandwich and some chips.” Tony looked closer at Peter’s plate and he saw two pieces of pie.

“How come you got two pieces of pie instead of one?” Peter tried to fight his smile. “I guess you were hungry, huh?” That was how dinner went with Tony asking questions and Peter giving him as few answers as he could. 

About an hour later, Tony was sitting in the recliner again Tony heard Peter shriek in the bathroom. Jumping up he rushed forward to see Peter looking frantically at his hands. “What’s wrong?” 

Peter turned to him, almost hyperventilating. “My skin! Look!” He showed Tony his right arm. Sure enough, his skin was healing right in front of his eyes. Tony knelt down and put his hands on Peter’s cheeks. 

“It’s ok, buddy.”

“No, it’s not!” 

“Peter, you have to take a deep breath, ok? There’s nothing wrong with this or you.”

“How do you know,” Peter whined. 

“Buddy, it’s just your body healing itself. It’s a part of your change, ok?” Peter’s little eyes were fixed on the spots that were disappearing in front of his eyes. He whimpered again. “Come on, Pete. It’s ok.”

“Really?” Tony nodded. 

“It just means that your body is healing and so now you don’t have the chickenpox anymore or not like you did before.” Peter sniffed. 

“Are you sure?” 

Tony nodded, “Yeah, buddy, I am. Remember all those tests we ran?” Peter nodded. “This is just apart of your change.” Peter threw himself into Tony’s chest and wrapped his arms around his neck. 

“I’m so scared!” 

“It’s ok.” Peter started to cry for what felt like the millionth time and Tony was ready to drop. Talk about an emotional rollercoaster. Standing up he supported Peter’s weight with his arm as he moved into the room. He once again went to work trying to calm Peter down. 

The small boy was glued to Tony’s chest as he cried it seemed like no amount of patting his back or rubbing his arm would console the boy. Tony finally decided to save his back the terrible ache that would come later and moved them once again to the recliner. He leaned back and let Peter leach himself to his front. In a last-ditch effort, he moved his hand and allowed it to scratch the boy’s scalp gently. It was subtle, but Tony felt it; Peter relaxed just a bit against his chest. 

Perfect. 

And that's how the subtle sunlight of morning found them with Peter’s head resting against Tony’s clavicle dripping a nice puddle of drool on the man’s chest. Tony knew that he should have gotten up and ordered them some breakfast, but after having so many issues in the last week or so it was nice to have peace and quiet. 

A bit later Peter started to stir before he looked up with Tony with those owlish big brown eyes. The small boy stretched not knowing that Tony was awake before looking around and leaning back into Tony’s chest. “Good Morning,” he mumbled sleepily. 

“Morning Webs.” Tony pulled Peter to his chest and wrapped his arms around the small boy. The boy laid across his chest seemingly content for the first time since they arrived. 

“I’m sorry,” Peter said quietly.  
“For what?”

“I didn't mean to yell at you,” Peter said into Tony’s chest. “I was a pain in the butt this week.”

“I know and it’s ok.” Peter sniffed and wrapped his arms around Tony’s waist before he looked up at Tony. 

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Yeah?”

“You still wanna be my dad?” That was a loaded question and one Tony didn’t see coming for a second. There were so many answers and yet none of them came out of his mouth. 

“Just rest right now, ok? When we wake up we’re going to fly to Malibu.” Tony watched Peter blink up at him before the little boy’s head dropped again to Tony’s chest. Tony sighed knowing that wasn’t the answer Peter wanted, but what could he do? Again he let his hand move through Peter’s curls lulling the boy back to sleep. As he watched Peter’s chest rise and fall Tony wondered where they were going to go from here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And where do you think our boys will go from here? ;) 
> 
> See you soon!


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's bee a while guys that's for sure. Enjoy this chapter that you've all waited so long for.

Tony was so very happy for friends who could alter medications on a whim. God bless Bruce and FedEx overnight. He’d popped those things into Peter’s applesauce and the kid had been out like a light ever since. To say that Tony was exhausted was an understatement. Taking care of a sick kid while trying to travel across the county was probably the hardest thing that he’d ever done in his life. Needless to say when Peter zonked out in the car ride and had to be carried onto the jet, Tony wasn’t the least bit upset. In fact he was elated that Peter slept the entire flight and well into the afternoon. 

After spending so much time crammed into that hotel room, it was nice to sit and listen to the quiet moments with his own thoughts. He wasn’t sure what the boy was doing now, but if he was honest. He wasn’t overly concerned. Peter was probably talking to his spider or something. Tony took a breath before leaning back in his chair as he looked out onto the Malibu skyline. The last two weeks didn’t look anything how he wanted it to. Things had been so calm and fun for so long. They had fun and stayed up late doing whatever the hell they wanted. It was like having a fun-sized partner. Why did Peter have to go and ruin everything? All he had to do was stay home and out of Tony’s lab.

“Anthony?” Turning around a wide smile spread across his face. His beloved aunt was a sight for sore eyes as she stood there looking as miraculous as ever. 

“Aunt Peggy,” he breathed out. After a quick hug he took a moment to take in the beauty of the woman who was more like a mother to him than his own. He let her take another hug before her hand rested on his cheek. 

“Oh Jackie, I have missed you,” she said with a tender smile. 

“Same here. I love you,” he said squeezing her again. “I’m glad you’re here even if you invited yourself.” 

“As I recall, your exact words to me were I’ll always be able to come over when you have a house,” she said with a playful smile.

“I was six.”

“But you said it nonetheless. A man is only as strong as his word.” Tony rolled his eyes before letting them land on his aunt’s bags. 

“Is this all you brought?”

“The nice driver set some of it down in the foyer, but these are my essentials. I went to drop them in the room I usually stay in, but it was occupied by a rather tender looking child.” Tony winced.

“Ugh, I forgot to mention that. That room has the best view of the ocean and this is his first time seeing it.”

“You don’t have to apologize, Jackie. This is his home. I’m a visitor.”

“No you’re not.” 

“Anthony, I most certainly do not live here. I mean look at this decor,” she said, smirking. 

“Ok, I get it. Let me set these things down in your room and I’ll return. Please make yourself at home.” 

Minutes later Tony found himself moving around the large living room, his aunt was sitting on the couch while he moved to sit across from her on the loveseat. They caught up a bit before of course, they found themselves discussing Tony’s young charge. If he didn’t know any better he was sure that his aunt was investigating him or at least that situation. 

“So you’re surprised that he started to cry? You scared him out of his wits,” she admonished. 

Tony leaned forward with exasperation. “It wasn’t just crying. He was wailing. It was this Godawful cry. It sounded like I was skinning eight cats. Then of course the entire lobby was looking at me like I was this evil bastard who beats his kid.” Tony put his head into his hands with a groan. “It was a miserable, terrible, horrible, experience.” He expected that his aunt would give him some comforting words or at the very least say anything, but instead, all he got was silence. When Tony looked up from his rant he saw his aunt smiling sweetly at him. 

“What?”

“Anthony Edward Stark. You love him, don’t you?” Tony rolled his eyes.

“Don’t be silly. I’m just helping him out.”

“You may have just started helping him out, but you darling have grown to love that little boy.” 

“That’s not true. You don’t get connected to the job.”

“Oh please. You keep that Howard Stark hogwash in the grave where it belongs. I have known you since the day you were born. I see it in your eyes and in however so often you check over your shoulder to see if he’s coming. You love him.”

“I don’t,” he said firmly. She leaned forward with a firm smile. 

“Jackie, don’t lie to yourself. You cannot tell me that you would have voluntarily let anyone near you, especially a child if you didn’t love him. I bet when you saw him that night how’d you feel?” Tony thought about the sick feeling in his chest when he saw Peter standing hundreds of feet below him in the middle of a battlefield. With deep shaky breaths, he felt his palms start to sweat. “It’s ok to love Jackie. It’s not going to hurt you.” With that Tony’s head snapped up.

“Love does hurt! Love beats you for ruining a business meeting or for calculating numbers faster than him! Love leaves you at some school for freaks all one because you were in the way. Love does hurt. It hurts like hell,” he said bitterly. 

A few moments passed before he heard a soft hum. “Jackie, what about those nights when you watched the stars or made a pillow fort?” Tony sighed.

“What about it?”

“That’s love Jackie. Howard didn’t teach you, love, that was something far worse. What you and I have. What you have with your friend James. That’s love.” Tony sucked in a deep breath. “What you feel for this child, that is love.” Tony shook his head before standing up.

“No. I can’t. I just can’t.” Slowly his aunt stood up before pulling his hand into hers. 

“You can love him. You already do.” Tony felt his heart start to speed up. He felt her small hand appear on his arm. “It’s ok to be scared. That’s a part of it, but you can’t live your life running away from fear.” 

“I know that,” he breathed out. “I just, I,” he started before stopping and almost choking on the words.

“Just say it, Anthony. Speak your peace.”

“What-what if I can’t protect him? He’s just a kid. I mean he still talks to his stuffed animal for God’s sake! I’m going to ruin him! I just know it.”

“Anthony, dear you have to relax. You’re going to be ok, you hear me? Everything will be ok. You’re not going to ruin him.”

“I will.”

“No, you won’t. Listen to me,” she said, putting her hand on his cheek. “I can tell you that little boy loves you. You said it yourself that he was miserable at that school without you. Don’t forget that you are the one he chose as his protector. Remember what Charles said? The boy wants you.” 

“I’m going to fail him, I know it. I can’t protect him, not how he needs to be.” 

“Don’t you see it? Who would be better to teach him how to navigate this complicated world we live in than you? You know the facets of both worlds. If he’s going to survive he needs to know these things too. So you are protecting him.” Tony opened his mouth, but she spoke first. “You’ll protect him more if you just teach him to protect himself. Teach him all the things your father never taught you. You can do this Anthony.”

“What if I fail him? What if I teach him everything he needs to know and he still gets hurt?”

“Kids, get hurt all the time. It’s a part of life. You can’t wrap him up in bubble wrap, but you can teach him to fight and how to survive.”

“So what do I do?”

“You’re Tony Stark, figure it out.” He smiled at her. 

How’d she always know what to say? 

~/~

Peter was sitting on the giant bed that seemed like it would swallow him whole. He was feeling better, but his skin still felt a bit prickly and he was a bit tired. At least though he could stay awake for more than a few minutes. 

Having the chickenpox sucks. 

Rolling over Peter moved himself and Webster toward the big giant window. Peter pressed himself against the glass as he watched the giant waves lap below. He had never seen the ocean before. Even though he couldn’t touch it, Peter could hear it vividly. More than anything he wanted to go down to the beach and touch it. He imagined himself running in it and doing flips. Maybe he could learn to surf like those people on tv. 

“Oh Webster, if I ever get a chance to go down there I’ll probably never leave,” he said squeezing the spider tightly against his chest. 

“What do you mean if you ever get the chance?” Turning around Peter turned red upon watching Tony’s Aunt Peggy coming toward him. 

“I was just pretending,” he said quietly. She smiled at him before coming and sitting on the edge of the bed. Peter bit his lip as he looked back out of the window. 

“Pretending, huh? It sounded to me like you were making plans.” 

“No, I was just making stuff up. That’s all.” 

“Peter would you like to go down to the beach?” Peter looked down before nodding silently. “Why don’t you ask Tony?” 

“It’s ok. I’m um fine, really. It’s really nice to look at. I’ve never seen it before. Not up close I mean.” 

“Why don’t you come over here,” she asked, patting the bed next to her. “Come on, I don’t bite.” Peter knew he didn’t really have a choice. Grownups were weird like that. He moved himself to sit near her but left enough space that if he had to leave that he could. “Tony told me that he needed to get away for a bit. I bet you wanted to come here too?” 

“I like New York. Well, some of it.” 

“What did you like about it?” Peter bit his lip not sure what to say. “I um prefer it to my old boarding school,” he said. The woman laughed at him before leaning in and smiling. 

“I know your secret, so you can talk to me like you do Tony, ok? I promise I’m safe.” Peter still didn’t budge. He couldn’t afford to make any more mistakes.

“No ma’am for real. I really didn’t like it in Massachusetts.”

“Ok, well how about this? Remember when Tony told you that there are only a few people he trusts without regard? The ones he says are _clypeus_?” Peter’ looked up knowing that was the one codeword Tony gave him to indicate those closest to him. 

Clypeus..Shield. 

“I um I liked the big buildings,” Peter said after a few moments. Aunt Peggy smiled at him. 

“Hi Peter,” she said leaning down toward him again. “It’s nice to meet you.” Peter giggled. 

“You talked to me before!”

“I know that, silly, but I’ve never seen your face,” she said, pinching his cheek lightly. “I’ve heard so much about you, but I never got to see you with my own eyes!” Her eyes traveled toward Webster. “Who’s this,” she asked sweetly.

“Oh, it’s just Webster,” Peter said with his ears tinging red.

“And who is Webster?”

“Just my pet spider.” 

“Ah. It’s nice to have friends, huh?” Peter nodded. “Do you have any friends at school?” Peter shrugged. “Oh, that’s right you’re going online right now, huh?” Peter nodded. “Would you like to go back to school?” Peter shrugged. “Well, I guess there’s time for that. How about you tell me what you like to do?” 

“I don’t know.”

“Oh, come on. You do know. Tell me what Peter likes.”

“I um, like pizza and computers.”

“See? That’s something. Anything else?” 

“I like action figures and model planes.” Peggy looked around the room.

“I don’t see any of them here.”

“My stuff’s in New York.”

“Why did you leave it there?” Peter shrugged again. “Are you going to get more and please don’t shrug. Tell me what you’re thinking.” 

“I messed up. I brought my tablet and Webster and my Avengers toys but that was it.”

“Why Peter? Did Tony tell you that you couldn’t bring them?” 

“I thought he was going to leave me somewhere. I can’t carry anything else in my backpack.” Peter could see the woman getting annoyed. “I messed up real big and then he said we were coming here ‘cause of me. I thought he was just gonna leave me here then go back.” To his surprise, she reached out and hugged him. 

“It’s not your fault.” She looked at him. “How about this? Write a list of all the things you want to have with you and give it to me at dinner. We’ll talk about it, ok?”

“No, it’s ok. This room is really nice.” She gave him a firm yet loving smile. 

“You get me that list, ok?” Peter gave a jerky nod.

“Y-yes ma’am.” When the door clicked closed, Peter smiled and looked down at Webster. “She’s really nice, huh? Yeah, I know. She makes me kinda nervous. I hope I didn’t make a mistake.” Peter smiled down looking at the lovely little spider. “I know! I wish we could go down there. I hope he’ll take us before we have to leave again.” 

~/~

A couple of hours later, Tony found himself wondering why the house was so quiet. He’d been in the lab for more time than he could actually register. Shrugging he whistled as Tony made his way toward the kitchen to see what everyone was up to when he heard a small whimper. Moving forward he almost stepped on the small figure who was on the ground making the worst little sounds that Tony had ever heard. 

“Peter!” Leaning down he put his hand on Peter’s shoulder only to have the boy his and wriggle away all the while crying. “Whoa! What’s wrong?” At his words, Peter clenched his hands around his ears and curled tighter in a ball. For a quick moment, Tony panicked. What could he do? How did he help this boy? Turning on his heel he went in search of his aunt. He moved from room to room frantically before finally finding her in the kitchen sipping what smelled like tea. 

“Really Jackie, what is the rush?” Tony turned to look up at his aunt before back toward Peter who was now full out whimpering.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with him! He-he was fine before!” Tony was panicking and he knew that he’d done yet another thing to hurt Peter. 

What was he thinking? 

Why did he leave a ten-year-old boy alone in a house this big without any supervision? “Jackie?” Snapping back he turned back toward his aunt. 

“What do I do?”

He watched his Aunt Peggy chew on her lip for a quick bit before adjusting herself on the couch next to where Peter was. “Go and get the softest blanket you can find preferably one he uses regularly then grab your best pair of headphones.” Tony paused looking confused.“Urgently Jackie.” Tony turned to do just that as Peter curled further into a tight ball on the floor.

When Tony returned he looked at his Aunt who was leaning forward trying to calm Peter down by speaking softer than Tony had ever heard anyone speak. She silently reached for the items. First, she wrapped Peter in the blanket as best as she could the way he was laying then she adjusted his head a bit so that she could slip the headphones onto his ears. Tony saw the tension almost instantly leave Peter’s shoulders. “Glasses Jackie.” Tony looked down at his designer sunglasses before handing them to his aunt. It was amazing, once they were placed on Peter’s face the boy went limp like a noodle. 

“What do we do now?”

“Pick him up. It will be better for him up here.” Tony hesitated not sure if he should touch Peter. “What are you waiting for Anthony? Pick him up please, yeah?” Tony rolled his eyes. She was being super bossy.

“Yeah.” Once he did that, he watched curiously as his aunt adjusted Peter’s torso onto her chest leaving his legs on the couch. He was expecting Peter to stiffen or to whine like he’d done when Tony had tried to help him, but instead, he sank into her chest as she started to rock him.

Wow. 

Feeling like the scene was more than he could bear he turned and made his way back downstairs toward his lab. 

His Aunt Peggy had things under control.

~/~

The rest of the afternoon passed by quickly. As he returned to the living room he was surprised to see Peter’s head was pillowed on his aunt’s lap as he slept. What a day it had been. “What was that?”

“A sensory overload.”

“How do you know that?” 

“When you’ve been around for as long as I have you learn things.” She returned a stiff but pleasant smile.

“Thank you again. I had no idea how to help him.” The brown-haired woman frowned at Tony.

“He’s been having those spells for how long?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen it before.” She didn’t look like she believed him. 

“Anthony, Peter said that he’s been having these spells for weeks now.”

Tony frowned before looking down at the boy who was still sleeping soundly. “He uh never told me that.”

“Kids don’t always tell adults things, but what I want to know is how did you miss them? These things don’t just last a few minutes.” The man shrugged, sagging with guilt. He couldn’t tell her how irresponsible he had been. She would be so ashamed of him. “I’m guessing the Stark tradition of neglect isn’t dead, is it?” Tony couldn’t look at her. Leaning forward he let out a hum of discontent. “Anthony, are you seriously telling me that you leave this child alone in that apartment at night by himself?”

“He’s been fine.” The frown the woman gave him was enough to bring any man to their knees. 

“No, he’s not,” she hissed. Peter whined at her raised voice. “Oh dear, his hearing must be sharper than I thought.” She adjusted herself before she moved to get up from her position. Once Peter was settled on the couch she moved herself into the large den and glared at the painting on the wall. Tony knew that she wasn’t quite finished yelling at him yet so he did his best to not go back down the lab like he wanted to. As soon as he closed the door she turned toward him with a fiery glare. “Not even you were left alone at that age.” A wave of guilt passed over him reminding him of all the reasons why he didn’t want to take on this job in the first place. Everyone had such faith in him and he wasn’t sure why. “Look at me right now Anthony.” Grudgingly he did so. 

“You’re better than this Anthony Edward Stark. How you’ve treated that boy up to this point is deplorable beyond measure and you should be ashamed of yourself.”

Tony knew that he should accept that she was right, but it stung to consider it. He had told them. He told everyone that this was a bad idea and now they wanted to believe him. “Look, I told them from the beginning that this wasn’t going to work. I’m not cut out for this.”

“That’s just what you want to believe isn’t it?”

“It’s the truth,” Tony said coldly. 

“No, it’s not. I should have seen this coming honestly. You want to be this playboy who stays out all hours of the night and sleeps with anything that moves. You don’t want to grow up.” He didn’t say anything. “It’s more than that though, isn’t it? You just don’t want to be responsible not for yourself, not for him, or anyone else. Well, Jackie, you have a tough decision to make. What are you going to be to this child?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. This boy needs a father _and_ a friend. You can be both, but you have to choose to be a father first.

“I can’t be a father, Aunt Peg. Peter deserves better than me.” The self-loathing was dripping from his every word. All he could see was Peter on that battlefield looking so small and hopeless.

“And why not? You think you’re going to be your father?” Tony looked fiercely at the painting on the wall across the room. “You’re not Howard. You hear me? You are not your father. He doesn’t need you to be perfect. More than anything he needs you to be committed to raising him.” 

“It just freaks me out. I get so nervous and every time I think of how dangerous what he did was I get mad all over again.”

“It scared you, huh?” 

“Immeasurably,” Tony conceded. Softening for the first time since they’d entered the room, his aunt moved toward him with a tender look on her face.

“That’s part of life, Jackie,” she said cupping his cheek with her hands. 

“Yeah,” he said sullenly.

“Life isn’t easy Anthony and I must tell you that you need to decide what you’re going to do right now. It’s not fair to either of you to live like this.”

“What do you mean?”

“You need to think long and hard about what kind of life you want this child to have and whether you want to have it with or without you.” Tony stared ahead. He knew that he loved Peter, but he couldn’t commit to being a father not yet. He would have to do a lot of thinking before he made any more decisions. As always, Aunt Peggy could read him like a book. “Go ahead and rest. I’ve got him tonight.” 

“You don’t have to.”

“Jackie, go and get some rest. It’s fine.” 

~/~

Thoughts had been moving through Tony’s mind at a rate that anyone else’s might have exploded. He had read countless articles and listened to over a dozen podcasts, but the decision was still lingering in his mind. 

It wasn’t really hard to realize that he loved Peter. It was hard not to. With his adorable little ears and an infectious smile, Tony found it hard not to melt every time the boy asked him for something. He knew that he indulged him, but it was difficult to not give the boy everything he wanted. Peter had been raised remarkably well. Way better than Tony was. Peter said please and thank you and aside from his blatant display of disobedience Tony never had any problems with him. 

Dropping his head into his hands, Tony knocked over his tablet that crashed to the ground. When he picked it up he was surprised to see it showing Peter’s bedroom. He was working on developing a more robust form of Artificial Intelligence that acted as a very secure security system. For some reason, it had opened the camera in Peter’s room. Feeling more hopeless than he felt, Tony figured maybe consulting the person who this decision most affected wasn’t a bad idea.

He smiled as he watched Peter jumping on the bed. It was amazing to watch the boy do flips on a bed that shouldn’t be possible without a springboard. From the bed, Peter leaped to the wall landing flawlessly. As Tony smirked Peter was moving across the wall like something from the Grudge. There was a large smile on his face as Peter turned himself upside down on the ceiling. 

Leaning back in his chair, Tony couldn’t help it as the truth came to light. Who else could manage to be the person that this boy needed? Who would have the resources to guide this bright young mutant to live in a world that was against him? 

The decision Tony realized had already been made.

Peter was his son.

Tomorrow he decided that he would tell him.

~/~

Peter woke up feeling better than he had in days. Rolling over he pulled himself up into a sitting position with a happy smile on his face. Maybe he could get to go to the beach today. Turning to this side, Peter saw a small note on one of the six pillows on the giant bed. When he read the words Peter felt his heart jumping. Tony must have had one of the robots drop it off while Peter was sleeping. He tried to calm himself down; Tony wanted to see Peter in the lab as soon as he woke up.

Just like that everything from the past weeks came back to his mind...the fury in Tony’s eyes. His anguish and embarrassment of getting yelled at in front of the world’s heroes. The cold look that Tony had offered him for seemingly forever. There in the giant room in Malibu, Peter found his insecurities had come back full force.

With shaky legs, Peter got himself ready for the day. He put on a basic pair of camo shorts and a gray t-shirt. Quietly he made his way toward the area where he figured Tony’s lab was. He knew that they were on much better terms now, but he was still worried. Tony hadn’t told Peter that he was staying or anything else for that matter. For all Peter knew he was about to find out that he had to leave again. When he finally arrived at the lab, Peter wasn’t surprised to see that it looked very much like the one in New York. A small twinge curled in his stomach at the thought. When Peter walked in, he found Tony staring at the car parts in front of him before he started unscrewing something. The music wasn’t as loud as Peter knew Tony liked it, but he was happy nonetheless. Peter’s ears were a lot more sensitive these days. “You wanted me,” he asked timidly. Tony didn’t lookup. Peter faltered wondering if he should just run away like his mind was telling him to. As much as he wanted to, Peter didn’t want to live his life in fear anymore. If Tony was going to kick him out, he wanted to know now. Taking a deep breath he called out again. “Tony,” he said louder. That got the man’s attention with a hand-wavy gesture the music stopped.

“Hey, how are you feeling,” Tony asked, wiping his hands on a rag. Peter shrugged just wanting to get this horrible talk over. 

Tony stood but didn’t speak. Peter moved to sit down on a stool, but instead, he felt his arm getting tugged before finding himself moving behind a door that looked a lot like a wall before following Tony down a long staircase. With a deep breath, Peter followed Tony all the way down the steps that seemingly led to the depths of the earth. Whatever Tony kept down there was something that Peter knew Tony didn’t want to ever be seen again. His breath caught in his throat when he wondered if maybe Tony was going to lock him down there until he turned eighteen? Peter stopped moving instead he wondered if he should just run away like he wanted to. He watched Tony’s back get further away as he stood glued to his spot. 

“Hey, kid? You coming?” Biting his lip, Peter started to slowly walk down the steps again. “Come on! Jeez if you go any slower you'd be going backward.” Peter picked up his pace just a bit and found Tony giving him a coldish stare when he made it to the bottom of the stairs. “Here we are,” Tony said, opening the heavy door. As Peter stepped inside his jaw literally dropped. This wasn’t a workshop, this looked more like a lab for a scientist. There were beakers, wires, unfinished robot looking things. It was then that he noticed the red and gold Iron Man suits.

Wow. 

“So this is where the magic happens,” Tony said. 

“This is amazing,” Peter said, eyes traveling in every direction. 

“It is, isn’t it?”

“Yes! I mean I still can’t believe you’re IronMan. That’s crazy.” When the words came out of Peter’s mouth he winced wanting to kick himself. He shouldn’t know that let alone even talk about it. He used to love the Avenger, but now all it did was bring him grief. Peter let his hands touch one of the repulsors before he felt it gently taken out of his hands. “Sorry.”

“No sweat. I mean who wouldn’t want to touch some of my awesome productions? People have come from all over the world to get their hands on a genuine Tony Stark piece of weaponry.” Peter tried to read the man but failed. Instead, he looked up at Tony with curious eyes wondering why Tony had brought him down here. He didn’t want to wait very long though. Within moments Peter found himself being guided toward the long used couch in the corner of the lab.

Once they were both seated, Tony turned and gave Peter a firm hardened look. “We need to have a serious talk.” Instantly Peter felt himself getting sick again. He knew that he had ruined everything. What a loser he was. Tears came to his eyes before he leaned forward dumping his head into his hands.

“I’m sorry Tony! I’ll be good from now on, I swear!” 

“Hey, kid relax.” 

“Please don’t send me away! I won’t mess up anymore! And I’ll stay out of your way. I can even get a job,” Peter said faster than he’d ever spoken before. He felt like he was about to fly away from pure emotion before Tony put his hand on Peter’s shoulder. 

“Relax Pete. You need to breathe.” Peter bit his lip and wiped his face with the back of his hands. “Oh come on kid. I’m not even yelling.” Peter felt himself starting to cry again when a bottle of water was pushed into his hand. “You have to breathe Peter. Come on, relax. We’re just gonna talk, ok?” 

“You’re gonna lock me in here with your suits and I’ll never get to see the ocean,” Peter sobbed out. 

“Where did you...wait what? Oh kid you have the most active imagination.” Peter felt himself plucked off the couch and set on Tony’s lap. The man wrapped his arms around Peter’s shoulders and Peter let himself lean into Tony’s chest. As Peter cried Tony started to sing in what sounded a lot like Italian to Peter. He had to admit that it felt nice. The gentle rumbling in Tony’s chest was soothing in a way that Peter really needed. 

Peter must have fallen asleep because when he woke up the lights were dimmed. To his surprise though he was still on Tony’s lap. Sitting up he wiped his eyes. “You ok now?” Peter looked up at Tony before nodding. “Good. We need to get some things straight here so for a bit I’m going to talk to you about what’s going to happen, ok?” Peter sighed and climbed out of Tony’s lap and back onto the couch. Leaning forward he busied himself by picking at stray pieces of thread from the seams of the couch. 

“This is something I should have said when you first came to stay with me, but I really like having you around Peter.” Looking up Peter smiled at Tony. “It scared me a lot when you came back from the school. I had to try and figure out how to live this life with another person around full time. So I’m going to tell you now, what I needed to tell you before. Under no circumstances can you ever tell anyone what I actually do. They can’t know about my labs, they can’t know about any of my inventions, and they certainly can’t know that I’m IronMan.” Peter turned and made a face at the man.

“I don’t get it. Why can’t I? I mean it’s not bad for adults to be mutants, right?” 

“I need to explain some things to you and I need you to listen.” Peter nodded sensing this was even more serious than he thought. “Why is it that all of the Avengers wear masks?” Peter looked at Tony intently. “Although adult mutants are not outlawed, we certainly are not openly accepted in our society. Have you ever seen an adult climb walls like you or just run and start flying?” Peter shook his head. “Kid mutants may be illegal, but the adult mutants are still in hiding as well. That’s why we all work under masks so that no one will be able to come after us or our families if things ever were to change. Do you understand?” 

“Kind of.” Tony nodded.

“That’s ok, I still only kind of get it. Remember when I told you I had to leave for work and you followed me?” Peter’s ears burned with embarrassment but he nodded miserably. “You see, I made a mistake. I should have told you what was going on, instead of sending you to the play when I worked or leaving you in the dark, to draw your own conclusions. That was my mistake and I’m sorry.” Tony leaned back against the couch while Peter watched on in shock. 

“Why didn’t you tell me? We’re buddies. I would never hurt you.” Tony smiled one of those sad smiles adults gave before they said you couldn’t have a toy you wanted.

“I was afraid.” Peter’s head shot up.

“Afraid of me?”

“Not of you exactly, but of what you can do.” Peter deflated.

“Oh.”

“Not like that. You see I live a very dangerous life and I didn’t want you to get caught up in it. It’s hard enough trying to learn to handle your powers and not get caught. You’re a little boy and you need to be safe. In a perfect world that would be your only job, but we don’t live in a perfect world which I’m sure you know.”

“Yeah,” he said sadly, missing his aunt and uncle suddenly.

“I was wrong in how I handled things. You deserve to know what’s going on because it affects you too. For me to ask you to be my child in public and not in private was a terrible thing to do and I’m sure it was confusing for you.” Tony blew out a breath. “So, here’s the deal I promise to be open and honest with you and in return, you have to promise me your best promise ever that you will never tell anyone about the life that I lead. I have to know that I can trust you, Peter. What I do is meant to keep kids like you safe and mutants around the world free to exist mostly unaffected by the MCA. That’s a very serious business so I need to know that I can trust you.” 

“You can, I promise.” Tony gave him a hard look. 

“That sounds good, but I need to know that you mean it because I’m going to hold you to this. I’ll do anything for you, but you can’t betray my trust again like that. You're a kid and you’ll make mistakes, I get that in spades. I’m telling you, kid, trust is the one thing you can’t break. Not when the stakes are this high. If you do then we’re done and that’ll be the end of this. That’s my one contingency. Do you understand?” Peter nodded his head vigorously. He couldn’t bear the thought of being without the man he’d grown to love so much. 

“I promise. Really I won’t tell anyone ever.”

“Ok, I’m giving you my trust, don't break it, ok?” 

“Never again, I promise.” Peter pulled his legs toward his chest and curled into a ball. This was such a scary conversation to have out of nowhere. After the stress and fear that he had carried for so long, it was hard to think that he wasn't going to have to worry about it anymore. 

“Can I go play upstairs?” Tony let out a sigh.

“Not just yet.” Peter sighed.

“I said I wouldn’t tell your secret and I get it. I really do.” 

“That’s good Peter, but that’s not what I want to talk about now.” He deflated in his place. 

“Ok,” he said sadly. “What um do you wanna talk about?” 

“Rules.” At that, Peter felt himself starting to get nervous again. “We can’t keep doing what we were doing. Does that make sense?” Peter shook his head. “We can’t be friends anymore, Peter.” The boy dropped his head. “Wait, I don’t mean it like that.” Tony sighed. “I well, how do I say this? You’re a kid and I’m an adult. I need you to know that I’m in charge here.”

“I said I was sorry,” Peter said petulantly. 

“I know and this isn’t about that, well it is but not totally.” Tony leaned forward sighing. “Peter, if your uncle or aunt had told you not to go back down to the lab would you have?” Feeling ashamed at himself he shook his head. “So what was the difference?”

“I mean, I figured you’d be upset but it would be ok.”

“Exactly. That’s exactly what I’m talking about. From now on, I need you to think of me in the same light as your uncle and your aunt.” Peter opened his mouth before closing it again. Thinking of Tony like his uncle? The thought felt bitter on his tongue. “Think you can do that?” Peter shrugged. “Well, I guess that’s it for now. You wanna go up to your room?” Peter nodded before biting his lip. 

“Can we go to the beach?” Peter looked up hopefully as Tony thought of an answer. Peter started to move toward the door of the lab when he felt himself picked up from behind. Turning around he saw Tony with a bright smile on his face.

“I guess it's kind of crazy to live on the beach and not go, huh?” 

~/~

Peter woke up feeling exhausted and excited all at once. His nostrils filled with the sounds of laughter and smells of hamburgers. Those were two of his favorite things. Rolling over slightly he let himself smile at the sound of Tony and Aunt Peggy teasing each other. 

“You have a smile on your face that I haven’t seen in years,” Aunt Peggy said. Peter couldn’t see Tony’s expression, but it made him smile. They had such a fun day together. It was nice to think that maybe he was the reason Tony had a smile on his face. “You two had a good time, did you?”

“It was great, actually,” Tony said, chewing something. “Peter had never been to the beach before. Can you believe that? It was like watching a baby be born. He was fascinated by everything. I’ll have to take him back out there again soon.”

“You know maybe being away from New York can be good for you both? Give you time to bond together and become a family.” 

“I’m still really nervous,” he told her. “I spend so much of his life protecting people. What if I can't protect the one thing I don’t think I can live without?” 

“You’re meant for this, Jackie. You will be fine.” With that, Peter decided to ‘wake up’ and sat up from the couch he was on. 

“There’s our little man,” Tony said waving Peter forward with a smile. “Come here bud, let me introduce you.” Peter moved across the room, but he kept himself glued to Tony’s side as he entered the kitchen. “Peter this is my Aunt Peggy.” Peter gave a shy wave.

“Oh Jackie, Peter and I are wonderful friends, aren’t we Peanut?” Peter’s ears turned red at the name. “Why don’t boys go and get cleaned up and I’ll bring this to the dining room?” Just like that, they were eating at the table laughing and having a good time. Well mostly. For some reason, they had to eat these weird salads with walnuts and pecans first before Aunt Peggy would let them eat their burgers. Peter kept moving the spinach leaves around in hopes that they would magically disappear, but that wasn’t the case at all.

“Peter, Jackie here tells me that you have an increased metabolism. That means you have to not only eat more than everybody else, but you have to eat healthier as well. If you don’t stay healthy then your body can’t stay strong and that could adversely affect your mutation.” Peter gave Tony a look of betrayal.

“Don’t look at me kid. She knows everything. She always has,” Tony said, spearing his own spinach leaf. Peter sighed before finally pushing the gross salad into his mouth. The entire time he looked at the plate with a hostile glare. After what felt like forever, Peter saw the salad moving away from him. “I think you’ve suffered enough,” Tony said with a smile. He handed Peter a plate with a burger as he smiled at him. “Enjoy.”

“You’ve got him wrapped around your finger Peter,” Aunt Peggy said. Peter smiled happily. 

“Don’t worry Aunt Peggy, I’ll eat three burgers to make up for it.” Peter bit into the burger and stopped suddenly. He didn’t quite know how to tell them that he hated onions. He did his best to swallow the food that was in his mouth, but he had no idea how he was going to manage eating three other burgers just like that. He looked at the bun and saw the small diced onions sitting right there starting at him. He tried to hide it, so he busied himself eating the sweet potato fries that were scattered all over his plate. He wished he could have anything regular tonight, but someone wanted to torture him. Peter kept trying to will himself to eat the gross food, but he just couldn't. So he just gave up. 

“Peter, darling why are you just eating your fries?” Peter sighed but he kept his eyes on his plate. He knew he should answer the sweet older woman, but he was so overwhelmed with disappointment.

“Pete I know you’re starving after all that running you did on the beach. You have to eat something,” Tony said pointing at Peter’s plate with his fork. Sadly Peter picked up the burger and chewed before contouring his face and pushing the plate away. “Ok, what’s the matter?” 

“I don’t like onions,” Peter said softly. Tony rolled his eyes and stood up. 

“Why didn't you just say that? You don’t have to eat onions if you don’t like them. Jeez, kid.” Within seconds Tony returned with three burgers that were onionless. “Think you can eat those princess?” Peter gave Tony a bit of side-eye before he opened his mouth to eat the burger. With a smile, he dove into the burgers. By the time he came up for air he had finished four full burgers. 

“Would you like another one Peanut?” Peter glanced at Tony who nodded. 

“Yes please.” She placed two more burgers on Peter’s plate and smiled. 

“You’re like a bottomless pit,” she said. “You know Jackie was like that too when he was your age. He could eat an entire pizza by himself. Do you remember that Jackie?”

“Of course I do. Those were the good ole days before heartburn and high cholesterol.” At that everyone started to laugh. The tension that Peter had been feeling for a long time seemed to float away. 

“What do you say we all head out to the beach and watch the sunset?” Peter looked up at Tony with a hopeful look on his face. 

“Oh don’t give me those eyes,” Tony said sighing. “Fine. I guess we might as well.” Peter whooped and jumped up from the table. 

As they sat around a small fire, the sun was just starting to set. Tony looked at Peter who was making a small castle in the sand right in front of his chair with the biggest smile on his face.

“Having fun?” Peter looked up nodding. 

“I love the sand and the smells of the water. I never thought it could be this cool, but it’s even better than I imagined.” 

“You know something, Anthony, you do have a house out here, couldn’t this be something more permanent for you?” Tony knew what she was implying. It was the same thing that she kept hinting at in almost all of their conversations. He thought about his job or at least what he considered his job to be. Honestly, he could do all of those things from here. The rest of the Avengers were around the country. Why did he have to be stuck in New York?

“What do you think Peter? Think you can handle being a California kid?” Peter’s head snapped toward Tony at a speed that Tony didn’t know any human could do.

“I’d love to! Could we come to the beach every day?” 

“Not every day, but I think we can work something out,” Tony said. Peter gave Tony one of those smiles that let him know that he’d made the right decision. 

The Stark men were Malibu bound. 

“This is amazing!” Tony couldn’t stop smiling if he wanted to. Peter’s exuberance was contagious and more than anything it was uplifting. Tony had forgotten just how happy Peter made him feel. It was nice. He didn’t even mind it when the boy practically fell asleep on the beach again and Tony had to carry him to the car. Peter didn’t even stir when Tony set him in the giant bed and closed the door.

Tony settled on the couch in the living room with Aunt Peggy as they watched a movie whilst talking about the secret things that Tony couldn't talk openly with anyone else about. They strategized and worked on a few plans on how to move the mutant freedom agenda forward before finally settling in and starting to really watch the movie instead of just letting it play in the background. Tony heard the sound of feet pounding down the hall. Turning to see what was happening Tony saw Peter rushing toward him. “Tony!” The boy leaped into Tony’s lap with his heart beating a mile a minute.

“What’s wrong bud?” 

“I can stay here, right?” Tony frowned.

“Yeah, of course. Where else would you go?”

“I had a dream, these men came and you let them take me. They said I was bad, but I’m not bad Tony.” He wrapped his arms around the boy’s shoulders and squeezed him tight.

“No, you’re not bad and I promise no one is going to take you from me, ok?”

Peter looked up at Tony with the biggest hopeful brown eyes that Tony had ever seen. “You promise?” Tony nodded and dropped a kiss on Peter’s head.

“I promise.” With that, Peter relaxed into Tony’s hold and fell asleep again or so Tony thought.

“Love you, Daddy,” the boy said sleepily.

Over the lump in his throat, Tony spoke. “I love you too.” As Peter settled back into sleep, Tony felt his aunt's eyes on him. “What?”

“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about how nice it is to be a grandma.” Tony smiled.

"You want a new name that bad huh," Tony teased. "So it's Grandma Peggy?"

"I was thinking more like Oma," she said with a smile. Tony rolled his eyes but inwardly he was smiling as well. Things were finally right with the people in his life and it felt amazing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drop me a comment and let me know what you lovelies think!

**Author's Note:**

> Are you ready? If you liked Riding the Waves, buckle up for this adventure. It's gonna get BUMPY!


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